Dr. Michelle Collins, Dean and Professor at Loyola New Orleans University College of Nursing

and Health, has spent her decades long career first as a registered nurse in Labor and Delivery

and Pediatrics, and then as a Certified Nurse-Midwife. As a practitioner, educator, and

administrator she is involved in a number of national nursing committees and task forces. Her

passion is helping to improve maternal-child heath and given that LA has the worst maternal-

child outcomes in pregnancy and birth, there is no shortage of work to do here.

Having spent a semester in undergraduate education in London, England working alongside

midwives of the National Health Service, Dr. Collins first saw nitrous oxide used routinely in

 childbirth. In 2011, she led the nitrous oxide initiative at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville,

Tennessee.  Since that time, she has consulted for hundreds of hospitals to assist in

initiating nitrous services, as well as presenting on the topic frequently both nationally and

internationally.

And just for fun, at the invitation of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network, Dr. Collins

writes a weekly blog for the British show Call the Midwife which you can find at the PBS

website.