Tier Two Doulas

Gillian Foreman is a DONA trained birth doula, training to do postpartum work, a certified childbirth educator, and on her path towards lactation consultation. She is also certified in Neonatal Resuscitation. Gillian’s life-changing birth experience taught her that women still have a long way to go in being allowed to choose their own birth experience.  Her goal is to educate as many women as possible about the choices they have in their own birth experience and to help empower them to facilitate that choice.  As a doula and childbirth educator, Gillian has found the perfect blend.  She gets to mix her love of women’s advocacy with her talent for creativity and admitted obsession with excel spreadsheets. Originally from Texas, Gillian brings a warmth and charming sense of humor to her clients.  She is married to a medical resident and co-believer in the wonder of birth, has a spirited 2 year old, lives in Upper Manhattan, and truly has a passion for “all things birthy.” 

Nicole Ganzekaufer is a DONA International certified birth doula CD(DONA) and a certified Lactation Counselor (CLC) whose goal is to provide her clients with informed, supportive and empowering birth experiences. Nicole received midwifery assistant training at the Farm in Tennessee with Ina May Gaskin and several other midwives, and she is also certified in Neonatal Resuscitation and adult/child/infant CPR. Nicole has experience supporting women in home, birth center and hospital birth settings. The birth of Nicole’s daughter Sonja in 2010 motivated her to work towards a career change. After spending over a decade working in international and community development, with a focus on women’s issues, Nicole had the opportunity to work with incredible women development practitioners and caregivers in their communities in the U.S., the Caucasus, and Sub-Sahara Africa. These experiences have led Nicole to think deeply about her own interest in working more intimately with women and providing care, specifically during the birth process. Through her education and work Nicole has specialized on issues including community development, gender, health and housing policy. Since 2009 Nicole has shifted her focus to the practices and policies surrounding women’s health care, motherhood and birth. She now works to provide informational, physical and emotional care to women during their pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum.

Maria Spencer is a certified birth and postpartum doula, and a certified lactation counselor. Maria is drawn to doula work because she can offer new mothers the unconditional, nonjudgemental support that she found invaluable for her own growth. She draws on her experience as daughter, mother, sister, and friend to create a safe, protected space for other mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends. Maria carries her compassion, peace, and deep respect for the miracle of childbirth with her to each birth. She feels blessed to have found work that feels like a natural extension and culmination of her life experience, rather than a job she leaves her life for. 

Heather White is a photographer and DONA trained birth doula. Prior to becoming a doula/photographer, she was a naïve girl from Ohio with wide-eyed dreams of a life in the big city. Soon after moving to NYC, she found her first creative calling as a photographer and began traveling the world capturing sensual, vivid, and life affirming images from India to Burning Man festival. Capturing life’s most vital moments became the heart of everything she accomplished. Most recently, she was influenced to become a doula because of the immense care that received during her first birth. Having her children was more than absolute magic, it has been laughter, tears, divinity, and silliness all rolled into one that brought these gifts into her life. Through this experience, she has become instinctively in tune with the process of birth and the idea of mothering the mother. She not only offers support, guidance, and comfort to all the mothers-to-be out there, but also wants to bring her open and creative spirit to the process, along with great skill at photographing human nature at its peaks. She brings an abundance of love and light to the very creative journey that is the adventure of giving birth and becoming a mother.