My name is Jessica Ruscetta (she/her), and I am a birth & postpartum doula, lactation counselor, childbirth educator, placenta encapsulator, wife, mother, and adventure traveler. I love to work with families during one of the most wonderful, crazy, life-changing times in their lives, when they are expecting a new baby! I also love mentoring new doulas and hearing all about people’s journey to birth work.
In 2008, I gave birth to my first child, and it was not the experience I had hoped for. From the pregnancy to the birth to the postpartum, it was disappointing. Of course, I had a healthy baby, and I was physically healthy, but I was mentally and emotionally unhealthy. When I became pregnant again in 2011, I was not going to let history repeat itself, and I armed myself with more information and support during my pregnancy and the birth of my second child. The difference was life-changing! I knew that if first-time parents had support, information, education, and guidance that they could have a better outcome than I did with my first pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. I wanted to help these families, so I began to research becoming a childbirth educator, and with that the Pandora’s box of birth work was opened!
With a very supportive family and friends behind me, I began my training in January of 2013 to become a birth doula, reading everything I could get my hands on, studying, and attending education and doula training workshops. Two Hands Birth Services, my doula practice, was born in 2013 in southern New Jersey, as I felt with my two hands, I could make a difference in the lives of the families I served. All my hard work paid off as I became a certified birth doula through DONA International in July of 2015. My hunger for more knowledge continued, and I soon also trained and certified as a postpartum doula, childbirth educator, and lactation counselor as well. I wanted to be of as much service to families that called on me as possible.
During my experiences supporting families through pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, I also developed wonderful, supportive relationships with other birth workers. I found that these partners in birth work were essential to the services I was providing. I enjoyed hearing their stories of birth work just as much as the stories of the families I supported. After the home birth of my third child, in the summer of 2016, I transitioned my solo practice into a doula co-op, and I think it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. As a co-op, we shared our passion for birth work with each other and supported each other’s careers and lives.
In the fall of 2017, in a time of transition, both personally and as a family, my husband and I decided to do something radical. On a long drive to a client, I had an epiphany about how to merge my calling as a birth worker and our family’s dream to tour the country in a converted school bus. We went on the road in 2019, and I offered birthwork and doula mentoring as The Nomadic Doula to families and doulas all over the United States. This adventure gave me more knowledge and understanding, so I could be of better service to the families whom I am honored to support and my doula family who lean on me as I lean on them.
Sadly, due to many factors, including a global pandemic and my family relocating to Maine, Two Hands Birth Services closed in 2021, but my relationships with all the doulas and clients I have had over the years remain strong. I am excited about all the possibilities the future holds, and all the families Rooted In Birth serves. I am once again a solo practice, but I am definitely not alone. I look forward to meeting you and your family wherever you are on your birth journey.
