Vital SignsVital SignsCheck your MP →
CVUAbigail Holmes — no licensed photograph is available, so the clinician plate is shown instead.

Clinician

Abigail Holmes

Director of Midwifery and Neonatal Services, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is based in Cardiff North — the organisation’s base, not a personal address.

Press citations

1

Topic

1

Hospital discharge / bed-blocking

Last quoted

Aug 2026

Abigail Holmes: key facts

Kind of voice
Clinician
Role
Director of Midwifery and Neonatal Services
Organisation
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
Organisation based in
Cardiff North
Quoted on
Hospital discharge / bed-blocking
Tracked press citations
1
Most recently quoted
27 Aug 2026

Who Abigail Holmes is

Abigail Holmes is Director of Midwifery and Neonatal Services at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board (CAVUHB), an NHS Wales local health board serving Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. She qualified as a midwife in 1998 from University of Wales College of Medicine, having previously trained as a registered nurse in 1995. She held her first senior midwifery management post at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board from 2008 to 2015, managing community midwifery, in-patient wards, antenatal clinic, and birth centres. She joined CAVUHB as Head of Midwifery and Lead Directorate Nurse in 2015, later progressing to her current directorial role. She is a professional doctorate student at Cardiff University, with research focused on women's experiences of being offered vaccinations in pregnancy. She has spoken publicly on NHS midwifery staffing shortages, the board's response to Healthcare Inspectorate Wales inspection findings, and investment in maternity services recruitment.

“From what I have seen and read there were no meaningful conversations that took place over the risks of giving birth outside of an obstetrics unit. A woman can only make an informed decision if she has been informed, and that includes the risk of death. It should have been made clear to Jen that she was high risk for a delivery at home.”

References for this biography

  1. 1.Cardiff and Vale University Health Board introduces new digital maternity records app — Confirms current role title as Director of Midwifery and Neonatal Services; direct quote from Holmes
  2. 2.A statement on the Healthcare Inspectorate Wales Report into Maternity Services – Cardiff and Vale University Health Board — Confirms role as Director of Midwifery; establishes public statements on staffing shortages and £2m investment in maternity services
  3. 3.Meet the Maternity Team – Cardiff and Vale University Health Board — Establishes career history: qualified 1998, joined CAVUHB as HOM in 2015, professional doctorate at Cardiff University researching vaccinations in pregnancy
  4. 4.Mrs Abigail Holmes – Head of Midwifery & Directorate Lead Nurse – Cardiff and Vale University Health Board — Official CAVUHB staff contact page identifying Abigail Holmes and her organisational base at University Hospital of Wales, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XW
  5. 5.The Communications, Arts, Health Charity and Engagement Team – Cardiff and Vale University Health Board — Establishes press office contact details: news@wales.nhs.uk and 02921 836052

Notable achievements

  • Led CAVUHB's investment of more than £2 million to improve recruitment and resources across maternity services in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan in response to staffing pressures and Healthcare Inspectorate Wales findings. Source ↗
  • Oversaw the introduction of the BadgerNet digital maternity records system (BadgerNet Maternity System and Badger Notes app) across CAVUHB, giving pregnant women instant access to their maternity records. Source ↗

Where Abigail Holmes has been quoted

  1. ‘Gross failure’ led to deaths of mother and baby in Prestwich home birththeguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Related media coverage

Recent UK press coverage of their topics — not necessarily citing them directly.

Contact & links

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.

Doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and other registered clinicians quoted in a clinical capacity. Citations are counted by an automated scan of UK press coverage and may be incomplete. Roles, biographies and contact details are researched and human-reviewed before they appear here; anything not yet reviewed is simply absent rather than shown unverified. This profile was last updated on 5 Oct 2026. See the methodology for how this page is built, or email contact@bridgeheadcommunications.com to correct anything on it.