By Chaya Bar-Chaim – The Forward
It was not quite 6 a.m. on July 13, 1981, when the phone rang in Rochel Vail’s upstate summer bungalow. Her friend’s frantic husband was on the line. His wife was in labor, and his car had broken down. Would Vail drive them the three hours to the hospital in New York City?
“Sure!” she said, without missing a beat.
Vail piled her three kids, all under the age of 3, along with the expectant couple, into the car, which was ”a jalopy like you’ve never seen,” she remembered.
At one point in the drive, the pregnant woman asked to make a pit stop. Vail stopped at the Ramapo, New York, gas station and instructed the woman’s husband to fill up the tank with gas while she accompanied her friend to the restroom.
Five minutes passed, then 10. “The reason we didn’t come out was quite obvious,” Vail said with a smile.
That baby girl’s birth certificate lists “Ramapo Gas Station” as the birthplace.
“I had zero training; never even had a first aid class,” Vail said. “It was, ‘Give me a baseball glove,’ and I caught. That’s it.”
That was the day that Vail decided to spend her life helping women give birth. Thirty-three years later, Vail, now 56 and a mother of 10, has helped deliver more than 2,000 babies. She is a certified doula, an emergency medical technician trained in CPR and a Red Cross instructor. She is also a household name among families in the Chabad community of Brooklyn’s Crown Heights, where she resides. The purple walls in her office are plastered with hundreds of thank-you notes from new parents.
Despite the high demand, Vail aims to keep her prices affordable. “If I were smart, I could put my name out there in Manhattan and get paid double what I get paid here,” she said. “But I’m not interested. [Crown Heights girls] are my girls. That’s it. That’s how I feel.”
Vail’s warm relationship with the girls and women of Crown Heights is the result of years of interaction with them. Once a month she goes to the largest local girls elementary school and preschool to check the students’ hair for lice. She also teaches CPR courses to the 11th and 12th graders at Beth Rivkah, the largest girls high school in the area.
Many of her students later become her clients; in delivering their babies, she comes full circle.
“I just feel like this community is really one family,” she said.
“I see them in preschool, in high school, after marriage. I was taking attendance one day, and this girl raises her hand and says, ‘My mother told me to say that you were there when I was born.’ I mean, I know everyone.”
To Vail’s clients, she is more than just a doula.
“She’s a righteous woman, an angel,” said a 24-year-old Crown Heights mother, who for privacy reasons declined to give her name. This mother was 20 years old and 36 weeks into her first pregnancy when she learned that her child would be stillborn and that she would have to carry the baby to term nonetheless.
Devastated and confused, she called Vail, who had planned on going upstate that week.
Vail invited the young couple over to her house and spent hours with them, carefully explaining the details of what to expect during the delivery and offering them support and reassurance.
“I thought she was going to be upstate when I would have the baby,” the mother recalled. “But she told me, ‘I’m coming in [to the city] for you.’”
And she did.
The labor lasted more than 24 hours. “She knew exactly what to do right after the baby was born,” the young mother said of Vail. “She took the baby, wrapped it in a blanket, and handed it to me. She said, ‘You need to hold your baby so you can have closure.‘ That was very healing for me. Afterwards, she wouldn’t take money. She said, ‘I don’t take payment when there’s no baby.’”
The story has a happy ending: Vail has since delivered the mother’s other two other children, who now know her as “Mama Rochel.”
“Some births are happy, beautiful and heartwarming,” Vail said. “Others are nasty, sad and miserable.”
In her work, Vail has learned that nothing is predictable.
Her family also takes her work in stride, despite the long hours she spends away from home when on call. “The kids are used to it,” she said. “I’ve been doing it for so many years, they don’t remember when I wasn’t doing it.”
“It’s my claim to fame,” said Faigy Vail, Vail’s 20-year-old daughter. “When people tell me stuff like, ‘You’re a Vail? Oh, my God! Your mother’s an angel!’ I blush.”
”Plus,” Faigy added with a laugh, “I know that I’ll be well taken care of when I’m in labor.”
Vail was present at the birth of every one of her nine grandchildren. “I remember when I taught my daughter-in-law in high school. She said, ‘When I have a baby I want Mrs. Vail there.’ And then she got engaged to my son. And she said, ‘Ever since high school I wanted Mrs. Vail to deliver my baby, but I don’t know about my mother-in-law.’ And she went back and forth.”
So what happened?
“‘Mrs. Vail’ won over the mother-in-law,” said Vail.
Chaya Bar-Chaim is a communications student at Baruch College. She lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
a wonderful article about a special women. i believe with all my heart rochel helped me avoid two c-secitions. she was kind, caring, warm and full of information. even when i had an issues with a pregnancy she was there for me, guiding me and helping me in whatever way she could.
Rochel may you continue to help, guide and support women through these very wonderful years!!
rochel vail is g-d sent, she is absolutely amazing! i too was lucky 2 have her with me at all my 6 childrens births and had a great experience each time. the whole nine months were always easier 4 me knowing that she will b there (especially for the 1st child where there is so much unknown), and then its like the icing on the cake to actually have her there for the delivery and birth. may hashem reward her with everything good in her own personal life and she should have an overflowing abundance of yiddishe nachas from each… Read more »
When someone is a success, everyone wants to be part of it.
Good luck going forward!
Your cousin
so proud of u ma!!!
Thank you Rochel for being there for all of us! Rochel has been my savior for all our babies and Hashem bless her and her family with kol tuv seloh!!!!! Rochel is ALWAYS available, gracious, as if ur the only one in the world!!!! We love u:)
I do not live in CH but I almost want to deliver there to have the wonderful experiences described above. In a time of chaos it really warms my heart to read such a beautiful tribute and all the amazing responses. THANK YOU to Rochel and for this article!
She is a wonderful person, warm, comforting. Boruch Hashem for her!
Thank You
Rochel also helps many Mommy’s out there even out of Crown Heights via cell phone answering questions anytime day or night 🙂
From TCT
My famiy has spent the last few summers in camp with Mrs. Vail. It’s so reassuring to know that sh’e always there for anything – no matter how minor or major. May you be gebentched with koach & gezunt ad meah v’esrim! -CRK
Rochel Vail and Family are the nicest people They are warm, kind, and caring. Thanks for the beautiful article and shout out to Baily!
rochel vail is truly amazing!!! i called her in tears when i went into labor a few weeks early and she was absolutely my life saver!!!! BH I had the privelege of having her with me for all my deliveries! Hashem should bentch her with an abundance of brochos!
I dont ever write comments on forums or any social media or sites however, when i saw this article about Rochel i knew i had to write to say thank you! Rochel was the one i knew i wanted to be with me when i gave birth. she was with me at my first delivery and my 2nd and 3rd! i know i wouldnt have been able to do it with out her. just having her drive us to the hospital and being at my side kept me calm and made me feel confident that everything would be fine! Not… Read more »
and the baby. No words can do this tzedekes justice.
Rochel helped me with the delivery of my first ( we moved out of New York otherwise she would have been there for my second). It was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. I am so very grateful to have had her andI was so much calmer with my second child as a result of my amazing experience.
What an original thought on the writer’s part to write this article, and no one more deserving than Rochel Vail to have her amazing expertise and caring written about. May you be Zocheh to deliver thousands of babies more, including those of all of your own kids.
Rochel Vail is the epitome of ibergegeben and raises her children to be the same. An incredible and good woman with incredible and good children, kah.
I believe that my positive experience in my giving birth to each of my children was because Rochel Veil was there with me. She was so reassuring and always on top of the situation. She once spent a long time walking around the hospital with me when I was in labor even though her own foot was in great pain at that time. I wish everyone could have the wonderful experience of having Rochel!
Great job Cmb! Really nicely done
Wonderful to read such a beautiful and inspiring article, thanks for publishing it. And may Mrs. Vail continue to go from strength to strength for many more long and healthy years! 🙂
She really is that wonderful person! Even her daughters in law say so! 🙂 <3 Tzipora
She helped deliver my grandchild and taught me CPR.
So very kind. Hashem should hear everyone’s beautiful words and bless her with only the best!
.
I don’t live in New York but just this pass week someone mentioned to me that doulas are much more expensive in New York besides for Mrs Vail who will work with you. So beautiful to hear.
Much continued hatzalacha and all the babies born should be healthy and give much chassidishe nachas!
she is a precious gem
Such a nice and true article! May you be bentched with all the brochos you need and truly deserve very soon 🙂 !
Zelda Weinbaum
the last time i saw u was 37 yrs ago in Pardas Chana! May u be blessed & go Mechayil el Choyil!
Wow!
Mrs Vail deserves ever accolade as a teacher and a doula. Most importantly, as an unbelievable mentch. The young writer of this article , a Beth Rivkah High School alumni, is to be commended for utilizing her writing talents in a positive manner. Forward doesnt usually print articles favorable to crown heights residents. This was a pleasant surprise
Rochel was a doula for me and now for my daughter’s baby !
May Hashem bless her and her wonderful family for their selflessness and Chessed with all the Brochos BGuR
after my still born birth, (where i only saw and did not hold my baby), I asked s/o in chevra kadisha about it. it doesn’t say anywhere in halacha that you can’t do any of them, but he thought that it would be better psychologically not to see or hold the baby so that you shouldn’t get attached to the baby. I totally disagree! as a mother, i’ll still cry until today that i didn’t hold my baby. i agree with what was written above. it would have been a closure for me. may we only know of simchas! thanks… Read more »
Thank you Mrs Vail. May you be blessed for the the goodness you do & bring into this world
Mrs Vail is the most practical and experienced midwife and we are lucky to have her .Ask her opinions on home births and the huge danger mothers put themselves and their babies take by having their babies at home. Should be illegal
my favorite teacher in all of highschool. She taught us so much more then CPR and First Aid. She taught us how to be a mentsh. I and my classmates are incredibly lucky to have had her as a teacher! Thank you so much for all you do! we love you!
You have BH been a blessing in our lives easing my worries and delivering both our children. I dont know what I would have done without you especially not having either of our families here during the preganancies your support and care is absolutely cherished xx
What a wonderful article. I knew (Rosie) Rochel before she was married. She is a great wife, mother and awesome person. !!!!!!!!!!
Despite her busy schedule, she has sent Purim Shalach Monos with a Jewish theme and a poem for more years than I can count.
Continue the good work!!!!!!
Your friends from Florida
Brina & Mottel
There are many women that don’t live in CH that consult with her during pregnancy and delivery
Rochel was instrumental in both my Births which were 3 weeks early! I was I unprepared. She is an advocate for me and helps me during the entire labor process. She knows her place and is sensitive to the couple. I feel so positive about labor because if her and was able to do both without an epidural! Thank you Rochel for evruthjbg- may you continue to be blessed!
Rochel was a doula for me and now for my daughter’s baby !
May Hashem bless her and her wonderful family for their selflessness and Chessed with all the Brochos BGuR
crown heights hidden treasure…..
As a midwife, I have had the privilege of Rochelle Vail’s support and presence with my clients when I worked at Beth Israel many years ago. She is a blessing to every woman and family she cares for. I always remember her with love and blessings!
I am not an expert but from all the info I gathered holding the baby is the most appropriate. and as having been part of the chevra kadisha for many years I cant see any of us saying that or even having the opportunity to do so. something about that doesnt feel right
And Rochel’s support doesn’t end as soon as the baby is born.she has been a trusted friend and coach in all facets of life.she fosters parent to parent support for those going through tough times with special needs babies as well.kol hakavod….you know who 🙂
after my stillbirth, i was advised (by chevra kadisha) not to look at or hold the baby.
which is right?
Mrs. Vail is dedicated heart and soul to the well- being of the Mom and child. I had the privilege of using her for all of my births. She is tirelessly devoted and good natured.
CMBC is the best! What a gracious, heart-warming tribute to a wonderful person.
Rochel helped deliver my baby! There is no one like her. She has a unique gift. Her empathy, character, knowledge, and intuition is what really makes her an ideal doula. Rochel is a hidden treasure in our community. We love you Rochel!!!
How can we be in touch with Mrs Vail to hire her?
for those who use her service’s PAY HER PROMPTLY she works hard and goes days without sleep. and she is there for you.
and her beautiful family. She is truly a heroin.
So wonderful to read an article like this!
they call and use her as well. and they call her for advice etc. she is an amazing woman who was there for all of my children KA”H.
a grateful father
Rochel was there to help me deliver my first baby. She was incredible! Her presence was so calming and made all the difference
When going for my extremely high risk vbac i knew i needed help. She was my first doula as usually my mom was here- but she needed to go to my brother’s wedding (scheduled before i even knew i was pregnant!!!) So no mom but i was tramatized to say the least from my previous c in which i felt like a fish who was filleted! Oh and did i mention it was erev shabbas/erev pesach!!! But mrs. Vail came through and she was that comforting presence that i needed. BH i now have bli ayen hara – a healthy… Read more »
May she be zoche to help deliver many more babies. I had a fantastic time with her!
B’H Rochel helped me deliver my beautiful baby. She’s absolutely incredible-reassuring, warm-she has made my birth experience really beautiful. Thank you Rochel Vail!
What a REALLY nice tribute! Rochel, May you be Healthy and have a happy, long life, and have only revealed good and nachas from your children and grand-children!
My whole family has had the zechus to use her & she is a tzadakis as well as a terrific labor coach – May she always be busy with simchas.