birth and
postpartum experts
Greet your baby with confidence.
Whether you choose to work with one of our Doulas or take a class with us (or both!), you will have the right tools to birth without fear and be ready to step into your new role as a parent.
Learn More About Us
How we STARTED
Brilliant Births started as a LIFE CHANGE, and became a COMMUNITY.
Brilliant Births was founded in 2016. After years of education, including two masters from U.C. Berkeley, and climbing the corporate ladder, Heidi Kate had a life-changing realization: she became a mom, and immediately realized that support is a fundamental need during pregnancy, labor and birth.
Heidi left her degrees and career to pursue becoming a professional, certified doula. She supported clients, met so many amazing people, and in time created a community where doulas and growing families found guidance, purpose, and connection.
Over the past 10 years, Brilliant Births has grown from one woman’s dream into a community of nurturing, highly skilled people who have found their purpose: supporting a meaningful transition into parenthood.
“As your doula, I’m not here to choose your path. Instead, I am here to be a reassuring presence and to help you navigate your course.” – Heidi Kate
Meet the TEAM
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Throughout her entire life, Heidi has been a reassuring voice to others. A leader and supporter, a woman and a friend. After working for several years and earning a high-level management position in the solar power industry, Heidi had a life-changing realization. She became a mom and immediately realized that support is a fundamental need during pregnancy, labor and birth.
Heidi left her degree and career to pursue becoming a professional, certified doula. Heidi knew that with her passion for providing support, her commitment to education, and her ability to encourage and reassure others, becoming a doula was an obvious choice. It was almost as if the position was created specifically for her!
Heidi is certified to teach HypnoBirthing and Lamaze Childbirth classes. She has trained as a birth doula through DONA, CAPPA, Cornerstone, ProDoula, and Dynamo Doula. Her additional focus of study includes Spinning Babies and Evidence Based Birth. Heidi has also earned her Master rebozo credentials and placenta certification.
With a passion for vaginal birth after cesarean section, Heidi has supported and celebrated more than 50 clients as they reached this powerful goal. Her deepest desire is for her clients to know that they are cared for, that they can feel confident in their choices, and that they have the information they need when they need it.
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Keira comes to the birth world after a career in public health and social services research, evaluation, and consulting. That work also focused on supporting people as they navigate life transitions, social challenges, and the systems and institutions that support us as we all move through these moments. She has a passion for deep learning and listening, connecting to people, building communities, and being an advocate and a resource.
Keira is also a parent to two young people who are heading off to college, which inspired a search for change and a return to pursuing a passion for women’s health and empowered birth. She is grateful for the support, opportunities, and connections made during her own pregnancy, birth, and early child-rearing years. She now enjoys helping others find the connections, information and support they need to build their confidence, make decisions, grow, and thrive as they build their family.
Keira has a Masters in Public Health. She trained as a birth, postpartum, and full spectrum doula with Cornerstone. She is also a certified Cornerstone and Hypnobirthing Childbirth Educator. She also just started additional training as a lactation counselor!
When not teaching, learning, supporting births or helping families postpartum, Keira is a mountain bike coach for the Berkeley High School team, grows veggies and keeps chickens in her backyard, sings and dances with MoTor Dance, and gets into the mountainous backcountry (on ski wheels, or on foot) as often as she can with her partner, two kids and friends.
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Gracie Kearney has been a Certified Holistic Health Practitioner since 2006 and a Certified Massage Therapist since 2015, but has been a healer as long as she can remember. She’s always had an innate desire to bring comfort to those in need, and is grateful to be able to share this gift with others, especially mothers and mothers-to-be.
Gracie incorporates shiatsu, acupressure and energy healing in her massage sessions with the aim of providing relaxation and deep healing for all of her clients. She brings a loving touch to all of her sessions, while incorporating trauma-informed care. Through her sessions with clients Gracie hopes to create peace within each individual, so that we may be the healthiest, best version of ourselves. Gracie is honored to be a part of the Brilliant Births team, and hopes to bring love, healing, and inner peace to each birthing body, as well as to the next generation.
CMTC#68271
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My name is Amelia McDonald, a happy Bay Area resident, mom of two wonderful kids and too many pets and a lover of the water. I’ve spent many years supporting families through pregnancy, birth, and the early postpartum period, and that work has deeply shaped how I approach birth education — with respect, practicality, and a belief in informed choice and embodied knowledge.
Alongside birth work, I’ve spent much of my career teaching and coaching in high-trust environments, helping people feel capable, calm, and supported as they learn new skills and navigate big moments.
When I’m not talking about births and babies, you’ll most likely find me on a pool deck coaching, teaching, or cheering my swimmers on. I’m honored to be teaching at Brilliant Births and to support expecting families as they prepare for birth with clarity, confidence, and care.
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Maureen is a mom of three who found the birth of her first child unexpectedly profound. The years following this birth and the subsequent births of her other children, Maureen found herself counseling and advising many of her friends and family members regarding their birth options and how to accomplish their own desires for an empowered birth. In 2012, Maureen decided it was time to leave her corporate job and to transition into her life's passion of supporting, encouraging and nurturing birthing people and their families through labor and birth. Maureen is DONA trained, has taken several types of birthing classes (The Bradley Method, Hypnobirthing, Loving Arms, Natural Resources, Bay Area Birth Education) and lactation training classes. In 2015, Maureen added postpartum services to her practice after seeing many of her clients struggling to find their rhythm at home. Maureen will be a forever student of prenatal, birth and postpartum learnings and will continue to bring these learnings to her families that she is supporting. Maureen's peaceful demeanor and genuine care provide families with a strong base and level of support that is heartfelt.
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Kyra is a massage therapist, yoga instructor, and pain coach. For over a decade, her passion has been helping folks feel good in their bodies. To deliver a truly therapeutic experience, Kyra combines myofascial and Craniosacral Therapies, sports massage, movement and pain neuroscience education; her sessions address the whole human, not just the muscles. After having experienced the immense beauty and intensity of pregnancy herself, Kyra's belief in the power of frequent massages to renew and revitalize body and mind became even stronger. Whether working with folks in the perinatal phases, athletes, desk workers, or folks suffering from persistent pain, Kyra collaborates with each person to facilitate their own unique goals.
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Sara has been a part of the admin team since 2021, managing social media and marketing for Brilliant Births. She has had a passion for babies her whole life— almost since she was one herself! She directed that love into many babysitting and nanny jobs, before graduating with a B.A. in Developmental Psychology. Since then, Sara has combined her marketing and design skills to help expecting families find everything they need as they navigate a truly life-changing journey. Every baby deserves care, and she believes the best way to do that is to support parents. Sara feels very lucky to be a part of such an awesome team!
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Isadora has been with Brilliant Births since 2019. She initially joined the group as a doula and overtime became more involved in the business side of things. She’s been the classes and events coordinator since 2021, and supports the smooth running of the business and the amazing employees, contractors, and doulas. She loves what this business stands for and is proud to work for a small women owned company. Outside of Brilliant Births, she has her own doula practice in Sedona, and also supports women’s health through Ayurveda and Womb Healing modalities. She loves nature, music, and babies.
We’d love to help you find the perfect doula for your birth and postpartum. Reach out to us today for more info and to meet our team of doulas ready to help you.
Our Commitment
Brilliant Births strives to be an anti-racist organization. As birth workers, we understand that the medical industry in the United States has assaulted, traumatized, and exploited people of color, especially Black and Indigenous people, and we have seen that continuing violence first-hand.
We believe our responsibility as a majority white organization of doulas is to know that history, provide trauma-informed care, pursue anti-racism within ourselves and our community, and be supporters, advocates, and protectors of all birthing people. We acknowledge that we live on land stolen from Indigenous people and in communities built through the forced labor of people of color. We know that systems of oppression and violence targeting Black, Indigenous, and all people of color continue to damage families' health and well-being profoundly.
We are committed to reparations and community relationships that reallocate resources, decolonize, and disrupt systemic violence and oppression. We have chosen to partner with Stronghold to provide ongoing organizational training and consultancy. We pay ongoing reparations through Shuumi Land Tax through the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust.
Questions are part of the process!
Whether you have a lot of questions or only a few, we’ve got plenty of answers for you!