We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Melanie Maldonado. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Melanie below.

Melanie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

I have always known that I wanted to be in the medical field and service women and babies. I was 17 years old, witnessing one of my closest friends give birth and I made a decision to want to service women in labor.

Becoming a nurse was where I wanted to start because I knew I could become a Midwife through that pathway. However, when I started my search after high school, for a nursing program, I was persuaded into starting Medical Assisting instead. I did not know what a Medical Assistant was, but I knew I wanted to start somewhere.

After becoming a Medical Assistant, I worked in many different healthcare environments. Women’s Health being one of them and my second favorite, Pediatric Orthopedics. I began going back to school to finish nursing, but something would always happen. As I advanced through my career as a Medical Assistant, and taking my classes for nursing, I also became a wife and a mom. Through my own experiences while being pregnant with my first and second, I decided I needed to become who I needed during my preganancies. My first pregnancy I thought I didn’t have any other choices. I thought I pick an OBGYN and that is it. Whatever they say goes. With my second, I was older and I decided to ask the questions I wish I asked during the first. However, my curiosity earned me scoffing and a whole lot of side-eye. I felt alone in my own feelings. I wanted someone that would keep me informed and advocate for me. I decided to look into other careers that support birthing people and that is when I learned about what a Doula was.

Although I am not done with pursuing my Midwifery career, becoming a Doula is the ultimate reward for me. What an honor and a privelege it is to serve women during a moment so sacred.

Melanie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Melanie, or Mela, or Mel or otherwise known as the Golden Love Doula. A doula is a support person who can offer you evidence-based information, comfort measures, education, and confidence to birth your way! My motto is Empowering Births, Empowering Women.

Often, we lose our confidence to do what we were made to do. So I help guide and support you and your partner or family through those emotions. I became a Doula to help other women birth how they want to. To let them know that you absolutely DO NOT HAVE TO birth on your back in the hospital bed.

At Golden Love Doula I offer in person labor support, pregnancy and labor support, postpartum support, benkung belly binding, breastmilk soaps and balms with your own breastmilk, and I even offer virtual support. Currently, I am working on building a Free Baby Wearing library, so other moms and their babies can experience the benefits of baby wearing and try on or borrow a carrier.

My clients can look forward to a fun, loving and supportive journey. Whatever arises we can conquer together! This journey can be simple and beautiful for some, but for many, especially women of color and minorities, like myself, it can also be filled with uncertainty. It is important that my clients know that I will never leave their side and they can count on me to be there from beginning and beyond! Golden Love Birthwork is commited to making a supportive space for women and families on the same journey a lifetime of friendship.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

Being a Medical Assistant has opened up the door to experiences I am not quite sure I would have encountered, had I chosen to go through my original path. I have always questioned myself and I beat myself up a lot for not choosing my original path. As a 17 year old girl knowing what I wanted to do, I also did not have the best guidance on where to start, so I kind of had to just figure it out. I would still choose this profession, again and again. We are needed in these spaces and it is important to continue to speak about how valuable and important doulas are when it comes to birth and postpartum. We are the unrecognized village, in a world where women no longer have their village.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

It is important to always want to keep training and learning new things. That is what helps you stand out and also offer other services. It also keeps you abreast new things, teqhniques and tools. However, the best thing to have that is most helpful in succeeding as a doula is being humble. There are many who have been paving the way, long before me. I love learning from other doulas and listening to their advice and thoughts. Being able to support each other in the doula world is what gets you to success.

Contact Info:

• Website: goldenlovebirthwork.com
• Instagram: @goldenlovedoula
• Other: Website for my online store to purchase tees and hoodies in support of Golden Love Doula https://www.bonfire.com/store/golden-love-doula/?utm_source=copy_link&utm_medium=store_page_share&utm_campaign=golden-love-doula&utm_content=default

Image Credits
Image Credits Louis Lens Photography