Hello
I am Melissa Rohraff, a Certified Nurse Aid and Birth Doula. Assist, guide and support people has always been a passion for me and I have always been drawn to birth work however it wasn’t until I became familiar with what a doula does that I realized that was my calling as it allows me to support families during one of life's most significant transitions providing continuous emotional and physical support during labor but also allows me to educate the birthing mother giving her the resources and knowledge to advocate for herself allowing the expectant parents to move from fear to confidence by making birthing mothers feel heard, safe and respected in the most sacred space has been shown to have a positive impact on birth outcomes and the overall birth experience by ensuring the birthing mother does not feel alone by reducing fear and providing evidence based knowledge it helps expectant parents feel empowered throughout the prenatal, labor and postpartum period. My goal is to ensure families have a positive and safe birth experience by empowering families through informed decision-making, advocating, when necessary, essentially acting as a bridge between the birthing mother and their medical team, providing continuous emotional support, and compassionate, hands-on support.
My Story
My passion for birth work started in my early teens when I was working as a volunteer at a local hospital and had rotations on the labor and delivery unit as well as the NICU floor and while I enjoyed both they weren’t the career path I wanted as I wanted to support women and families during pregnancy, labor and postpartum but didn’t want to be an OBGYN or a labor and delivery nurse at that time and NICU was too much to process on a daily emotionally at such a young age and growing up still seemed to emotionally draining to think of that field of work for me then I got pregnant myself at 19 years old with my first daughter and life took me on a whole new path which didn’t include going back to school for many years. So fast forward to 2022 I am now a wife and have been for almost 10 years and have four children one who is 20 years old but three other that were 8 years old and under so attending college for many years to obtain a degree was not foreseeable to me at this time however I was given the opportunity to become part of a doula training program and at this point I had not known much about what exactly a doula was or what they do so I of course researched it and found this was exactly what I had been looking for since I was a teenager so I completed the training in March of 2023 and had my first client in April of 2023 and after supporting that client through pregnancy, birth and postpartum I did not doubt that my heart and passion is in being a doula as I have never gotten so much fulfillment and joy in any other work I’ve done throughout my life. In 2024 I wanted to make a little extra money and got my certification as a nurse aide and started working for a local nursing and rehabilitation center here in Hillsdale however after having a complicated pregnancy myself in middle to late 2024 I had to take a leave and have since decided to to just focus on my doula work as that is where my passion is and always has been.
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I have been married for 13 years and have six amazing children and one handsome grandson. I have found that being a doula allows me to spend more time with my own family, all while supporting other families on their journeys to parenthood. It is an honor and a blessing to empower, strengthen, and support families during the most vulnerable times in their lives.
Birth is tough, but so are YOU, and I believe in a person's ability to birth, no matter what that looks like to you!