Founder

A native Pittsburgher residing in O’Hara Township, on ancestral land of the Seneca culture, and a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Heather has spent the last 28 years serving women as a labor and postpartum doula and formerly founded Pittsburgh Doula Network, a postpartum doula service. In 2016, a dear friend and repeat postpartum client lost her second child, Madeline, to stillbirth. After witnessing the profound loss and grief, her eyes were opened to the silent tragedies women and families were experiencing all around her and how ill-equipped most people, including herself, were in handling it.

“Although I had been a birth worker for 20 years, I realized I knew practically nothing about perinatal loss. A lot of the things I thought I knew were wrong. I wanted to know what quality bereavement care meant, what the research said, and find a way to open up this taboo topic of babies dying because families were suffering greatly- and silently. When someone you care about is going through the worst possible tragedy, you want them to be getting the best help and know how you can be a good friend to someone who has been forever changed by the loss of their baby. I wanted to provide quality care and start with making these births special and help parents create their child’s legacy.”

~ Heather Bradley

The idea of providing free labor and postpartum doula care was her immediate response to serving these families. After devoting time to research and education, Heather became proficient in perinatal loss support and launched Pittsburgh Bereavement Doulas in August 2018. She is trained through Resolve Through Sharing  as a perinatal bereavement coordinator, a certified Compassionate Bereavement Care provider and a certified Baby Loss Family Advisor /Baby Loss Doula and trainer, having found a wonderful mentor and friend in Sherokee Ilse. She is a Count the Kicks advocate and also is certified as a Pregnancy Loss Group Facilitator through The Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath and Death Recently, she joined Allegheny County FIMR (Fetal and Infant Mortality Review) as part of the Case Review Team. She is very passionate about sharing her knowledge with care providers and doulas so that loss families receive the best care on the most difficult day of their life.

In her free time, she loves planning her next travel adventure with her partner Andrew, spending time with her four children, cooking, baking bread, sewing, reading non-fiction, and gardening.