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<law><site_title>Virginia Decoded</site_title><site_url>https://vacode.org</site_url><law_id>58401</law_id><section_number>54.1-2957.7</section_number><catch_line>Licensed midwife and practice of midwifery; definitions</catch_line><edition url="https://vacode.org/2025/" slug="2025" current="TRUE" last_updated="">2025</edition><referred_to_by><reference>54.1-2957.13</reference><reference>54.1-3408</reference></referred_to_by><structure><unit label="title" level="1" order_by="1" identifier="54.1">Professions and Occupations</unit><unit label="subtitle" level="2" order_by="1" identifier="III">Professions and Occupations Regulated by Boards Within the Department of Health Professions</unit><unit label="chapter" level="3" order_by="1" identifier="29">Medicine and Other Healing Arts</unit><unit label="article" level="4" order_by="1" identifier="4">Licensure and Certification of Other Practitioners of the Healing Arts</unit></structure><text>
						<section><p>&#x201C;Midwife&#x201D; means any person who provides primary maternity care by affirmative act or conduct prior to, during, and subsequent to childbirth, and who is not licensed as a doctor of medicine or osteopathy or <span class="dictionary">certified nurse midwife</span>.
		&#x201C;<span class="dictionary">Practicing midwifery</span>&#x201D; means providing primary maternity care that is consistent with a midwife&#x2019;s training, education, and experience to women and their newborns throughout the childbearing cycle, and identifying and referring women or their newborns who require medical care to an appropriate practitioner.</p></section></text><history>2005, cc. 719, 917.</history><metadata></metadata></law>
