Melanie Schatz, MPH

After completing her Masters in Global and Community Health Sciences with a focus in Maternal and Childhood Health from Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine Melanie took the opportunity of a lifetime to conduct research and teach at the Dali Lama Institute for Higher Education in Bangalore, India. During her time abroad Melanie was humbled and though she loved the challenges and occasionally adventurous  aspects of life with Tibetans living in exile in India, she found New Orleans and more hands on work suited her a little better. Arriving home, and a little unsure of how to pressure a more interactive position in birth work Melanie reexamined her course work and found she thematically found interventions focusing on women helping women to be most effective and in line with her values. Establishing that Douglas serve as an important peace of the birth team was easy, establishing qualifications and a network seemed a bit muddier. The stars aligned and Melanie quickly found a local training and was promptly accepted into the NOLA Nesting Mentor program where she furthered her practical and theoretical skill. With enthusiasm Melanie dove into her role and is ready to help serve her community through improving New Orleans birth outcomes and giving new families a strong and healthy foundation.

Community Doula work which involves establishing a strong working relationship with the expecting parents through out the prenatal period through continuing to support the families during the post partum period is how Melanie likes to operate. Having worked as a nanny for years and as an infant care provider she understandshow difficult transitioning into life with ababy can be and wants to help parents feel confident as the embark on the challenge of raising a little New Orleanian.