Nicole Heidbreder has spent more than two decades standing at the thresholds — birth and death — where life asks the most of us. A hospice nurse, labor & delivery nurse, and full-spectrum doula, she brings clinical expertise, compassionate presence, and practical wisdom to people and families navigating the perinatal period and end-of-life transitions.

She trains and mentors practitioners as an End-of-Life Doula trainer with INELDA and has prepared hundreds of doulas through her DONA International–approved birth doula trainings. Her course Navigating Family Dynamics at the End of Life grew directly from her hospice and doula practice, addressing the relational, ethical, and logistical complexity families face during final transitions. Nicole also holds space for people choosing medical aid in dying and facilitates transformative Death Cafes and meditations that invite communities into honest conversation about mortality.

Her certifications span Grief Recovery Specialist, Grief Yoga Guide, ELNEC-certified hospice nurse, grief educator, grief movement guide, and Level II Reiki practitioner. Academically, she holds a nursing degree from Georgetown University (full scholarship), an MA in Administration and Management from NYU, and a BA in Psychology from the University of Illinois, where she was a Ford Foundation Scholar. She has served as a clinical educator at Johns Hopkins, taught in the Johns Hopkins Birth Companions Program, and sat on the George Washington University Hospital Ethics Committee. Her commitment to ethics and education is recognized by her induction into Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society.

Although she is no longer offering birth doula training and services, you can see some of her previous offerings on the Community Doula Program and Birth Doula Workshop pages.

A student of Thich Nhat Hanh's Order of Interbeing, Nicole weaves mindfulness and engaged activism into her practice as a sacred grief facilitator — integrating grief movement and mindful self-compassion to help people move through loss with presence and grace.

Nicole is a mother and homesteader at Abundance Community Farm, a communal farm in rural British Columbia on the traditional, unceded territories of the Cheam, Seabird Island, Skwah, and Kwaw-kwaw-a-pilt First Nations. She lives there with her partner, their daughter, and her cats, Apollo and Hermes. A global citizen who has lived, worked, and volunteered in more than 45 countries, Nicole brings worldly wisdom and deep curiosity to every encounter — grounded, brave, and fiercely present at every turn life takes.