Our Team

  • Colleen Heinze

    Certified Nurse Midwife
    Women's Health Nurse Practitioner
    Owner/Partner
    Clinical Director

  • Ashley Meccariello

    Certified Nurse Midwife
    Owner/Partner
    Administrative Director

  • Kara Ffrench

    Certified Nurse Midwife

  • Laure Sinnhuber-Giles

    Certified Midwife

  • Rachel Keeney

    Certified Nurse Midwife
    Doctor of Nursing Practice

  • Bernadette Harrington

    Certified Nurse Midwife

  • Farah Hack

    Postpartum Nurse and Birth Assistant

  • Mollie Martinez

    Birth Assistant

  • Alex Sullivan

    Birth Assistant

Colleen Heinze, CNM, MSN, WHNP

At an early age, Colleen became fascinated with the miracle of birth. As she grew and learned more, she became passionate about women's rights to autonomy and self-governance, especially during their births. She pursued nursing in order to become a support to laboring women.  While still in nursing school, she became a doula and attended many births as a labor support person. It was during this time that a friend suggested she take her passion for women-centered childbirth and turn it into her life's work by becoming a midwife. 

 Colleen's nursing career includes 4 years of working in Medical Neurology/ICR and 8 years working in Labor and Delivery at Stony Brook Medicine. In 2014, she returned to school at Frontier Nursing University where during her clinical time she caught more than 50 babies and practiced the art of midwifery in the home, hospital, and birth center settings. In March 2017, Colleen received her Masters of Science in Nurse-Midwifery and in June of 2017 completed the post-master's course as a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner from Frontier Nursing University. She is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Nursing Practice. 

 The passion that began in Colleen as a teenager has only grown during her years of working with and caring for women. She is thrilled to be able begin a practice with other Midwives who also believe in the beauty and sanctity of birth and who support safe, individualized, client and family-centered care to the women and families of Long Island. 

 Colleen is a native of Long Island and spends her time outside of Gaia ministering at her church, working with disadvantaged youth, and spending time with her family and her dog Clancy.  Colleen also loves to hike and camp. She has spent several decades serving at a girls camp in upstate New York, where she has been the Director of Medical Services, Coordinator of the Leadership Training Program, member of the Camp Advisory Board, Wilderness Trip Leader among other positions. 

Ashley J. Meccariello, CNM, MSN

Ashley was called to midwifery while caring for families as a nurse at Stony Brook University. She was "intrigued by the midwifery model of care and believed every family deserved a midwife". After 5 years experience in maternity care nursing, Ashley obtained her Masters of Science in Nursing at Frontier Nursing University in January 2017.

 Ashley is one of the founding members of Gaia Midwives. She is passionate about providing client and family centered care through education and shared decision making. She believes that pregnancy, labor, childbirth, and parenthood deserve support that encourages a positive transformative experience.

Ashley is active in local, state, and national organizations to help promote the accessibility of midwifery services. She is married and a mother to 3 young children, birthing her last baby at home with Gaia Midwives! Ashley enjoys yoga, walking, cooking and spending time outdoors. 

Kara Ffrench, CNM

While dancing professionally in NYC, Kara decided to also pursue a second Bachelor's degree in nursing that she knew would lead her to midwifery. While in school she worked as a Birthing Assistant at the Brooklyn Birthing Center. Upon graduating, Kara worked at a NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan as a Labor & Delivery nurse and then as the Assistant Nurse Manager of the Mother-Baby unit.

 These experiences combined with the Midwifery education she received at Stony Brook University helped to round out her midwifery education and practice. She worked with Dale Cook, the previous owner of Gaia, attending home and hospital births. Since then she has worked with a large Ob/Gyn practice and the Stony Brook Midwives before making a complete circle back to Gaia.

 Her main goals are to help women feel empowered, feel in control of their bodies and reproductive health, and have a peaceful birthing experience that they can look back on fondly. 

Laure Sinnhuber-Giles, CM

Laure is a board certified midwife, a certified lactation counselor and a certified childbirth educator. Originally from France, Laure lived in Germany, Japan and the UK prior to settling in NYC. The pivotal experience of giving birth to her daughters supported by an accomplished midwife inspired her to leave her career in advertising and to start her journey on the path of learning to support women and their families in their transition to parenthood. 

 In 2007 Laure initiated the Healthy Birth Choices workshop series at the not-for-profit advocacy group Choices in Childbirth: the power of story telling inspired over 1500 NYC families to think about their options and decide what was right for them. She supported families as a labor doula, lactation counselor and childbirth educator. She trained as a midwife’s assistant at Ina May Gaskin’s Farm Midwifery Center. Laure completed her midwifery training at SUNY Downstate in 2017. She practiced at the Brooklyn Birthing Center, at the Birth Center of New Jersey and at Overlook Medical Center prior to joining Gaia Midwives.

 Her passion is to shadow midwives and doctors who support physiologic birth around the world, thus combining her love of languages, cultural diversity and physiologic birth. So far, Laure had the privilege of shadowing midwives in the UK, in the Netherlands, in Amish Country Pennsylvania, in Montreal, Canada and in Orthodox Jewish Monsey, NY. She also participated in the Foundation for the Advancement of Haitian Midwives’ first conference in Haiti. 

 Laure strives to support women in tapping into their inner strength during this wondrous life transition.

Rachel Keeney, CNM

Rachel Keeney grew up in northwest Connecticut before pursuing an undergraduate degree in pre-med and natural sciences from Hampshire College in 2014 in Massachusetts. After working in the laboratory setting and exploring the path of midwifery, she realized her passions and talents were perfectly aligned with working more directly and holistically with women and their families. Her scientific background and familiarity with the data-driven world led her to realizing that the evidence overwhelmingly supports physiologic birth and nonintervention in low risk pregnancies, outlined by the mystique of the beautifully unknowable. 

 Rachel became a nurse initially with the aspiration to pursue midwifery, acquiring her Master’s of Science of Nursing at Johns Hopkins University in 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland and attended births as a student doula. Rachel worked as an HIV/AIDs and then perinatal nurse while pursuing a Master’s of Science degree as a certified nurse midwife from Frontier Nursing University, graduating in 2022. Rachel recently graduated from Frontier again with a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree at the end of 2023. Rachel’s nursing experiences showed her the importance of thorough primary care and the trauma-healing powers for women and their families when we meet their reproductive and birthing needs in personal and comprehensive ways, viewing birth as an opportunity for reframing life and family. She is concerned about nationally increasing rates of maternal morbidity and mortality and racial disparities therein; she desires to work with Gaia Midwives as a response to this urgent need and remain dedicated to supporting physiologic pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum needs.

​Rachel comes from Maryland and enjoys bodybuilding, sending real letters, and occasionally dabbling in crafts- especially when with family and friends.

Farah Hack, RN

As a child Farah knew she was meant to work in the labor world as she was fascinated by the miracle of birth. While attending nursing school, the concepts of advocacy, informed consent and mindful practice resonated with her as she began to form her nursing philosophy. In 2014, she earned an Associates degree from SUNY Farmingdale and became a registered nurse. She began working as an intake nurse at Visiting Nurse Services of NY. In this setting, Farah held many titles including Home Care Consultant and Supervisor of Care Transition Process while supporting thousands of patients during their transition into the home care setting. She continued her education at SUNY Farmingdale and earned a Bachelor’s degree, with honors, in Nursing.  

​Farah chose Gaia Midwives as her primary provider during her first 2 pregnancies. She received intimate, holistic and attentive care that she believes is so vital to mothers throughout their pregnancies and during their labor and postpartum journey. 

 In 2019, she jumped at the opportunity to work with Gaia Midwives as a birth assistant; now able to assist in delivering the same attentive and personalized care as she received. 

 2020 came and so did Farah’s 3rd third ‘pandemic’ baby, born via water birth in her home; an experience that allows her to relate closely with Gaia’s families. In the same year, Farah also began working as the postpartum visiting nurse for Gaia. In this role, she visits postpartum mothers and families in those first few days following their home births as they adjust to caring for a newborn. She is present to ensure Gaia’s mothers are well supported in their labor recovery. 

As a native New Yorker, Farah enjoys exploring the city, being outdoors, painting and crafting, listening to podcasts and spending time with her family.

Mollie Martinez, Birth Assistant

Mollie Martinez is one of the Gaia Midwives Birth Assistants. Her interest in pregnancy & birth was sparked through her own pregnancies. She educated herself and learned all of her options once she decided she didn't want just a run of the mill pregnancy or birth experience. This sacred time was important to her and she knew she had to find the right providers to support her and all that she had planned. Mollie met with Gaia and instantly knew they were different. The trust they built, the questions they not only answered but also asked, the knowledge they shared, the patience, the warmth, the passion; this was exactly the care and support she knew she was looking for. The care that EVERY human, pregnant or not, deserves.Allowing her passion to take the wheel, while also learning how broken our maternal healthcare system is, Mollie sought out ways to be a part of the change she wanted to see. Not too long after the birth of her second daughter, Gaia was looking for assistants to join their team and the rest is history. She has trained directly under the hands of Gaia Midwives along with the Pacific Birth Institutes Professional BA training program.Outside of Gaia she is a daughter, a mother, a wife, a sister, an aunt, and a friend. She homeschools both of her daughters who were also born at home and is loving how normal birth has become to them. Mollie enjoys cooking, spending time with her family, and is extremely passionate about CrossFit, and leading an overall healthy and happy lifestyle.

Bernadette Harrington, CNM

Bernadette grew up in Queens and moved back to New York to pursue her dream of working as a holistic, professional midwife with the team at Gaia.  She is an advanced practice registered nurse and a nurse-midwife. Upon completing the undergraduate prerequisites at Anne Arundel Community College in 2001, she became a nurse in 2003 by earning a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Maryland.

Bernadette worked as a nurse in critical care for many years, then decided to pursue a career as a nurse-midwife in 2016. She received a master’s in nurse-midwifery from Frontier Nursing University in 2020. After graduate school, Bernadette completed a six-month fellowship at Holy Family Birth Center in Weslaco, TX, worked at a busy birth center in Killeen, TX, and cared for numerous women in San Antonio and Florida clinics.

As a certified nurse-midwife, Bernadette serves women from adolescence to menopause and newborn babies. In addition, she enjoys educating and assisting women in caring for themselves and their families, and she endorses the midwifery model of care for low-risk pregnant women who desire a natural birth experience.

Bernadette likes to spend her free time cooking, reading, interacting with family and friends, walking, and shopping.

Alexandra Sullivan, Birth Assistant