Our Story
Our name is pronounced “go” but takes a unique spelling. Why? To reflect our belief that there are as many ways to parent as there are ways to move through the world.
We want to celebrate the uniqueness of parents. Your identity matters before baby, after baby, always.
For years, we’ve supported parents through the crucial early years. Dr. Mona has worked as a clinician, healthcare educator, and global parent. Anna has more than two decades in birth and postpartum care. Our paths were different, but we heard parents say the same things:
“I’m overwhelmed.”
"I feel alone."
“I’m losing myself.”
As parents ourselves, we understood. The internet gives us more information, voices, and tools than ever before. Yet it can often feel overwhelming, divisive, and trend-focused.
So we built something different, based on two key principles:
- Your parenting choices are valid.
- Becoming a parent doesn’t need to mean losing who you are.
We provide expert-led, culturally aware support that guides you with practical, evidence-based guidance and the confidence to trust your instincts about what’s right for your family.
Our community embraces you with the same care you show your children, because although we’re each unique, we have more in common than we may think.
Dentist. Educator. Global Parent. Advocate for Clear, Confident Living.
Dr. Mona Hovaizi is a dentist, educator, and mom of two who co-founded Gaux to give parents evidence-based guidance and the support to stay true to themselves in their family roles.
Before co-founding Gaux, Dr. Hovaizi co-founded HealthCareer Certs, a nationally recognized healthcare education company that serves thousands of students each year. Her experience building programs that simplify complex material strengthened her conviction that clear, accessible education can profoundly improve people’s lives. She believes parents in particular deserve straightforward information based on evidence and expert input, not trends.
Dr. Hovaizi’s perspective is also shaped by her travels across seven continents and more than 52 countries. Travel has always been her passion, and she continued pursuing it after becoming a parent. Her first child visited 24 countries by age two, and her second is on the same path. These experiences affirmed her belief that people are more alike than different, and parents don’t need to give up who they are to raise their children.
Gaux was created from this foundation: a focus on the facts parents actually need during the early years (from trying to conceive through toddlerhood) combined with a release from the pressure to do things any way other than what’s right for them.
Doula. Educator. Visionary. Advocate for Inspired Parenthood.
Anna Rodney is a mom of three girls, a birth and postpartum doula, and a certified childbirth educator. Her work is rooted in the belief that every parent deserves evidence-based information, compassionate guidance, and a strong community - beliefs that inspired the creation of Gaux.
For Anna, Gaux represents the culmination of more than two decades of supporting families through pregnancy, birth, and the transformative postpartum journey. Through her years of experience, she’s seen firsthand how parents thrive when they feel supported, validated, and connected. She sees Gaux as an intentional effort to bring families accessible, uplifting, culturally mindful, and science-backed tools from pregnancy through early parenthood.
Before co-founding Gaux, Anna established several influential organizations that have shaped the perinatal landscape. She founded Chicago Family Doulas, which has grown to become the largest doula agency in the world known for its exceptional doula support, standard-setting professionalism, and deep commitment to family-centered care. She also created Birth & Baby University, a comprehensive learning hub serving both expecting families and perinatal professionals with high-quality, inclusive, and evidence based education.
Since 2013, Anna has trained and mentored hundreds of doulas across the country, guiding new professionals as they develop the skills, confidence, and compassion needed to care for families during life’s most tender moments. She is widely respected as a leader in the field, known for her combination of warmth, vision, and unwavering dedication to elevating the standard of perinatal support through training, advocacy, and thoughtful innovation.
Anna is a lifelong traveler who believes parents don’t need to sacrifice their passions; in fact, they can share them with their kids. She has traveled internationally with her daughters and visited 43 states so far, with plans to check off the remaining seven soon. These experiences have shaped her belief that motherhood can be expansive, joyful, and deeply alive, not limiting, but transformative.
