We were lucky to catch up with Samantha Marvels recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Samantha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about the best advice you’ve ever given to a client? (Please note this response is for education/entertainment purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as advice for the reader)

This is very simple, but because I teach sovereignty and sacred birthing, one of the most profound pieces of advice I’ve heard echoed back to me about my course was that it resonated because “Life is a Ceremony” – all of it. Not just welcoming life, but all of it. The mundane. The tragic. The joys. All of it can be honored and felt in the body as a sacred experience. I loved that sentiment and think about it often.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

After 5 years as a holistic birth doula, teaching Hypnobirthing to couples, and 2 years training other doulas, I created Birth Harmony last year to support couples preparing for sovereign birth, or birth where agency and informed consent are honored by care provider and partner. Birth Harmony encapsulates my experience of attending over 100+ births, the best of hypnobirthing techniques, evidence based birthing, and couple’s communication.

I also created my own birth affirmation tracks, recorded over solfeggio frequencies for this course, which can be found on my podcast “Birth Harmony.” You’ll also find a free downloadable guide to Hypnobirthing at birthharmonycourse.com.

Birth Harmony is now a self-paced e-course and I offer monthly sovereign mother’s circle via zoom to support moms as they prepare for a less-than-mainstream birth.

The agency I created; The Austin Doula, focuses on supporting mothers preparing for natural birth with a tandem-care model that supports both family and doula. This means doulas are on rotation for their clients, which allows for a better work-life balance for doulas – which of course, benefits the families who hire them. You can find more info about our offerings at theaustindoula.com.

Finally, the doula training I created focuses on supporting doulas in supporting mothers preparing for birth with hypnobirthing; which I coined as “HypnoDoula” training. The platform is called BirthPeople.com and I’m currently planning to host a small cohort of doulas in the Spring of 2024.

It’s truly my passion to help mother’s prepare both their minds and relationships for a beautiful birth and postpartum journey.

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

In terms of training to be a doula, I believe the standard model for education deeply lacks what’s necessary to help doulas feel equipped at handling the rather emotionally complex doula role.

There was SO much I was not prepared for as a doula when I completed a 2 day training with DONA and told to “just get started.” Trauma-informed training (not to be confused with “trauma training”) is something I believe is necessary for doulas to maintain emotional boundaries and support their clients navigating situations. Understanding the nervous system is just as important as understanding physiological birth and from my experience, it’s very difficult to support the process of birth without understanding the nervous system.

Of course, every mother can benefit from having a doula and they should be an integrated part of maternal healthcare, just as midwives should be primary care providers for the majority of pregnant people.

That said, I do believe we would all be better equipped for care if doula programs included trauma-informed training. That, and a business model that supported doulas AND their clients, as we can’t pour from an empty cup.

But that was why I created the Birth People Course which incorporated the Birth Harmony material. While I hope every mother has the opportunity to hire a doula, I hold the same hope that every mother has a trauma-informed doula.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the hardest parts of my jounrey as an entrepreneur – which is part of the job as a doula – has been unlearning avoidant communication and how to have hard conversations.

In my former career (as a marketing professional), I think it’s easier to make the hard decision of letting someone go when expectations aren’t met. In birth work – where everything is intimate and heart-centered – I’ve had to learn how to apply what I teach in my class to couples, which is NVC ( non-violent communication), which is communication rooted in empathy.

The process of stating what’s noticed (observation), expressing feelings, stating needs, and making suggestions for resolution has felt liberating in learning how to be vulnerable in a professional manner, or “professionally vulnerable”…lol

The unlearning of corporate operations and relearning of empathetic communication as spilled over to all of my relationships, and probably one of the greatest skills I’ve acquired as a doula.

Contact Info:

• Website: birthharmonycourse.com
• Instagram: @samanthamarvels
• Facebook: samanthamarvels

Image Credits
My portrait photo I have commercial rights to share. The second photo is mine, of my clients.