Susanna B. Gatz

Susanna found her true passion when she stumbled onto the birth doula path. She trained with The Long Island Doula Association as a birth & postpartum doula and then went on to train with the Gaia Midwives as one of their homebirth assistants. Over the years she has been blessed to attend hundreds of births each time coming away with a greater knowledge base and more and more love for her work. Susanna is the founder of Birthside Doulas and has loved witnessing the group grow into a family.

Susanna is also a certified placenta specialist through APPA, a 200hr & Prenatal trained yoga teacher offering private & group classes, a Reiki practitioner, Closing of the Bones facilitator, and a certified Sacred Belly Binding Artist. She has done many trainings over the years to enhance her offerings to the families of Long Island including a powerful rebozo workshop with the beautiful Mexican Midwife Naoli Vinaver

Melissa Mapes

Melissa Mapes is an Earth Worker by day and Birth Worker by night. Mapes was born and raised in East Hampton. She is now homesteading in a Victorian home in downtown Riverhead with her three children, supportive husband, two dogs and a cat.

She is an avid naturalist and environmentalist who combines her love for nature into powerful birth work that reminds humanity of its wild roots. She trained as a Birth Doula under Traditional Doula and Midwifery Arts and has completed her Childbirth Educator training as well as a second Birth Doula certification through Birth and Beyond Resources.

She takes a dedicated pride in helping families become empowered by their birth experiences.