Maris James, CD, CBE (DTI) is a certified Birth and Postpartum Doula and Childbirth Educator serving families throughout New York City. A writer in her pre-kids life, Maris holds a BA from Smith College and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence. She jumped into birthwork while pregnant with her second child in 2015. She was educated through DONA and Doula Trainings International and has pursued additional training in massage, acupressure and counter-pressure techniques specific to birth support. Maris has given birth twice, first without a doula and the second time with a doula, and both experiences deeply inform her practice and approach.
Maris loves connecting with and bearing witness to expectant and new parents during these times of profound transformation in their lives. She is passionate about supporting all parents, including single parent and LGBTQIA+ families. A parent of two, she also enjoys helping families who are approaching birth for the second (or third or fourth!) time, navigating the unknowns of a new birth experience and the shifting family dynamics that accompany the addition of a sibling. Her experience includes accompaniment through home births, unmedicated hospital births, planned epidurals, hypnobirthing, inductions, cesarean births, high-risk births, VBACs, twin births and more.
