She has challenged the Australian maternity system through research and practice development in a bid to get a better deal for women in childbirth.
Her research questions the acceptability of the increasing interference of obstetrics with the physiological birth process.
Her research projects include the safety of primary level (especially rural) maternity hospitals and Birth Centres in Australia and the evaluation of midwifery led units.
[4][5] She is currently the chief investigator on a large multicentre randomised controlled trial of caseload midwifery care, funded by a project grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.
Tracy was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2023 King's Birthday Honours for "significant service to tertiary education, and to midwifery".