Michelle Collins, Ph.D, CNM, RN-CEFM, FACNM, FAAN, FNAP is a Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM) and Dean of the College of Nursing and Health at Loyola New Orleans.
Dr. Collins has been involved in nurse-midwifery education, research, administration, and practice since graduation from her nurse-midwifery program. She has a Diploma of Nursing from Saint Anthony School of Nursing and a BSN from Rockford College (both in Rockford, Illinois); MSN from Marquette University (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), and PhD from University of Tennessee Health Science Center (Memphis, Tennessee).
While in her undergraduate nursing education, Dr. Collins spent a semester in London, UK alongside midwives at St. Mary’s Hospital in Paddington Station. This experience was pivotal to her career as it is where she first saw midwives in practice as well as the use of nitrous oxide for childbirth. Upon returning from the UK, Dr. Collins was impassioned to become a CNM, as well as to facilitate the availability of nitrous oxide to birthing women in the US. Dr. Collins led the 2011 initiative to bring nitrous oxide to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (only the second hospital in the country to offer nitrous oxide for childbirth), and presents frequently nationally, and internationally, on the topic. Dr. Collins is a Fellow of the American College of Nurse-Midwives, the American Academy of Nursing, and a Distinguished Scholar Fellow of the National Academies of Practice. She has blogged for the first 8 seasons of the series for PBS affiliate Nashville Public Television (NPT).
“Serving women in the capacity of a certified nurse-midwife has ALWAYS been an honor to me. As I have taught hundreds of students, it is the highest privilege, and responsibility, to be allowed into such a sacred space as midwives enter daily. My relationship with my patients is a partnership; I walk alongside them in their care. Whether providing contraception, aiding with infertility issues, treating gynecologic conditions, or being present throughout their pregnancy and birth – it is ALL part of a journey in which I am grateful, and humbled, as well as incredibly honored to be on with the women whom I serve.”
