Birth has always struck me as extraordinary in the most literal sense: a body doing something so complex and so quietly powerful that it triggers this sense of awe in me.

Back in 2009, I watched “The Business of Being Born,” and it showed me the incredible power that comes when birthing people are encouraged to trust themselves and their bodies. I’ve been thinking about those questions ever since. Over the past decade, while working as a makeup artist in film and television, I met amazing women who were also birth doulas. They were people who had come to this work through a deep sense of justice about how birthing people are cared for and wanted to be part of that change. I recognized myself in that feeling immediately.

I was raised with the Jewish concept of tikkun olam — repairing the world through small, deliberate acts of care. For me, birth work is exactly that: showing up, staying, and bearing witness to something that matters. Regardless of gender or race or class. Fierce & Tender Birth Support comes out of my deeply held belief that it is our job to make the world a better place than we found it.

I'm a queer man, and I come into this work clear-eyed about what that means.

Male privilege is real inside medical institutions, and rather than apologize for it, I mobilize it — using the social dynamics of the room to protect your experience and expand your options. For transmasculine and non-binary birthing people, having a doula who isn't a cisgender woman can meaningfully shift the texture of care. And for male partners, I offer something different too: a way into the experience that meets them where they are, so they can more fully support the birthing partner. Your body is doing something extraordinary, and my job is to help you stay connected to that even when it’s hard, regardless of what my body looks like.