I have been a Virginia Licensed Midwife (CPM/LM) since 2009 and have served as the former Chair of the Midwifery Advisory Board to the Virginia Board of Medicine. I am currently the Chair of the North American Registry of Midwives Board of Directors. I regularly work with midwives nationwide to support the licensure of midwives as autonomous maternity care providers. The United States has the worst maternal and newborn outcomes in the developed world. Despite spending more on maternity care than any other country, the United States is the only high-income country with rising maternal mortality rates. The solution to our maternal mortality crisis is not money or technology. The solution is midwives. Outcomes are best in countries where midwifery care is the norm. To reduce the shockingly high maternal mortality rate in the United States, we must remove structural barriers to midwifery care, increase access to midwives for all childbearing people, and strive toward a more integrated system of care where midwives of all credentials are empowered to provide the high-quality maternity care that is within their training and scope of practice. As a Licensed Midwife and a national midwifery leader, I have seen the positive impact midwifery licensure and regulation of autonomous midwifery practice have had on consumer access to midwifery. I fully support Certified Midwives and the passage of these regulations that encourage the safe and legal practice of midwifery in Virginia.