Heather Collins

As a birth & postpartum doula and childbirth educator I bridge the science and sacred of pregnancy & birth. I value the connection parents have with themselves, their babies and supporting partners/friends/family.

I come from the world of science, I had both of my sons while doing my Ph.D. studying cancer proteins. It was the birth of my first son that highlighted the transformative nature of birth and parenthood. This planted the seeds of birth work which continue to flourish in me today.

I trained as a birth doula in 2016 somewhat on a whim when my postpartum self couldn’t stop reading about birth. Birthing my second son solidified my path and I began working fulltime as a birth & postpartum doula in 2018. My next turning point was in 2021 when I trained with Pam England through Birth Story Medicine as a birth story listener. My jaw hit the floor hearing ancient myths connected to the rite of passage that is birth and I knew that I would never mentor or doula the same way ever again.

I continued forth with BFW and this paradigm shift has deepened the connections I have with parents and importantly with myself. It has allowed me to support people in ways beyond the typical offering of information and enriched both my experience as a doula & human being and the experience of those I mentor.

I will forever be humbled and in awe of the immensity that we hold as birth workers: the triumphs, the challenges, the losses, the births, the transformations, the grey places. This work goes much deeper than I could have imagined, and it is a privilege to watch people bring forth their strengths and challenges, sometimes while doing the very thing they never wanted or imagined they would need to do. I am forever finding new answers to “How does birth matter?”, “Who am I before, during and after birth?” “Which parts of me are needed in labour?” “How can a birth story be integrated?”

I am particularly interested in how people hold their birth/feeding/NICU stories in the months and years afterwards. This is partly because working through my own personal sticking points surrounding my births has given me tremendous freedom. Witnessing a living birth story shift and infuse with self-compassion during a birth story session is profound.

Outside of my work, I live with my husband, two sons and too many cats in Montreal, Canada. I love cringey British comedy and knitting weird things like tomatoes and praying mantises.