About Holly

Holly Smith is a Certified Nurse-Midwife with extensive experience in both domestic and international women’s health policy and program development. She earned her midwifery training at Georgetown University 25 years ago and went on to practice full-scope midwifery for almost two decades in a variety of hospital-based settings—from San Francisco to a military hospital in Germany, and later across multiple Kaiser Permanente facilities in Northern California.

Holly holds a Master of Science in Nursing with a concentration in Midwifery, a Master of Public Health (MPH), and is currently pursuing a Master of Studies in Law at UC Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings School of Law).

Holly is recognized as one of California’s foremost experts in midwifery integration and is a dedicated advocate for dignified, accessible maternity care and safe abortion services that center patients and their needs.. As a midwifery consultant, she collaborates with midwives, community organizations, nonprofits, policymakers, hospitals, and birth centers to advance midwifery integration across the state. Her partners include the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC), the California Health Care Foundation, the California Nurse-Midwives Foundation, the Department of Health Care Services, and a range of philanthropic organizations.

Holly served as lead editor and author of CMQCC’s Toolkit to Support Vaginal Birth and Reduce Primary Cesareans and currently leads CMQCC’s Community Birth Partnership Initiative. She also co-leads a multi-year, statewide strategic initiative to improve midwife-led care for California Medicaid recipients, the first of its kind for California. This project—Midwifery Access California—brings together hospital midwives, community midwives, Medi-Cal managed care plans, advocacy organizations, and government agencies to expand access and improve outcomes for all birthing people in California.

Holly served as Health Policy Chair for the California Affiliate of the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) for six years and now serves as their Coordinator for Legislation and Advocacy. In this role, she writes, consults on, and advocates for legislation to improve perinatal outcomes in California. You can view a sample of her legislative scorecard here. Her recent areas of focus include abortion access, addressing the maternity care access crisis as maternity wards across California are closing, advancing access to freestanding birth centers, ensuring midwives can provide the care they were trained to provide without arbitrary limitations, and provider protections for abortion care. Listen to her recent interview on KQED Forum here.