We recently connected with Samantha Kelly and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Samantha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?
As a doula, there are a lot of different paths that you can take, whether that is working on your own, working in a collective, or working for an agency. I knew that I wanted to operate and own my own business, but I also knew that I really wanted to work in a community, and have the opportunity to build my knowledge base with other doulas. When I first trained as a doula, I found a fantastic community of doulas called Central Texas Doula Association, and through that group I was able to meet and connect with so many amazing birth professionals. In CTDA, I met Ciarra Morgan, who was operating a doula agency called Empowered Beginnings ATX. Ciarra had put out a blast looking for more doulas to join her team as independent contractors, and I felt that it would be an amazing opportunity for me to grow my skill set, and connect with more birth workers, while also working to grow and maintain my own business. Ciarra and I connected over tea soon after, and we quickly realized that we had a lot of the same philosophies and practices in our work. I joined her team and started taking clients with her, and through that I was able to learn from her experience, grow in my own experience, and learn more about the birth community here in Austin. After a while of working side by side with Ciarra, she and I actually decided that we worked so well together that we wanted to join together and form a partnership. We now serve clients in a co-doula model, which has been the biggest blessing I could have imagined. Through that first “job” with Ciarra, I have now grown my business to be more than I ever imagined, and it continues to grow now in our partnership.
Samantha, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Samantha Kelly, and I am a wife, mother to two, lover of YA fiction, and an absolute birth nerd! My journey to birthwork started with the birth of my second child, my daughter, where I learned that birth is not something that happens to you, but something that you actively participate in. I discovered the art of self-advocacy in her birth, and how important it is in pregnancy and birth to educate yourself, and set yourself up for a positive experience with a team that believes in you, and supports you. After having an amazing birth, surrounded by people I loved, including a midwife and doula, I knew that I wanted to help other birthing people to have an experience just as powerful as mine had been.
I believe that birth is one of the most powerful and transformative experiences a person will have in their life, and I believe that the key to having that experience be a positive one is education. A huge part of my practice involves educating my clients, both through classes that I teach, and through the support in pregnancy and birth that I give. I support every kind of birth, from home-birth to cesarean, and I believe that every birth deserves the love and attention that a doula can give. My goal with every client that I serve is for them to walk away from their birth feeling like they had all the information and support to make the right decisions for them, and that they felt loved and cared for by their care team throughout their birth.
I work in a co-doula model with my fantastic partner, Ciarra Morgan. We serve clients all across Central Texas, working together to provide them with educational, emotional, and physical support. We build relationships with all of our clients and their partners, and with our shared on-call schedule, we are able to provide them with support all throughout the year, without having to miss a single birth. We have seen this to be a huge bonus for our clients, because we no longer have to regularly reschedule appointments with them due to births, or have to worry about back-up doulas, because one of us is always on-call and ready to jump in. We have found that we are better doulas when we don’t have to worry about those things, and when we have time off that we can be with our families.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
When I first decided that I wanted to be a doula, it was summer of 2019, and I was 9 months pregnant. I knew that I was not going to be ready to jump into the hectic life of being a birthworker when I had a newborn, and so I decided that I would wait until my daughter was a little older, and would aim to start in the spring of 2020…..and then came covid-19. Doulas were no longer allowed in hospitals, childbirth classes were not an option, and no one wanted to be around strangers. So I decided that I would wait a little longer, because covid-19 certainly wouldn’t last more than a few months!
Wrong again.
In fall of 2020, the pandemic still raging, my husband and I decided together that it was not worth continuing to delay this dream of mine any longer, so I started my training soon after, and by January, I was booking clients. I had a lot of fear about changing regulations, health for my clients and my family, and just all the risks that go into starting a new business. By summer of 2021, I was regularly booking my schedule out fully, and had grown beyond what I ever thought I could!
Starting my career in the midst of a global pandemic has taught me a lot about being flexible, about navigating the healthcare system, and about my own strength and how far that can take me. I have learned so much about trusting myself, my instincts, and found a community to support me through it all!
Have you ever had to pivot?
When I first decided to become a doula, I imagined that I would just be supporting births, and maybe someday I would add in something like childbirth education. However, when I began my training, I found a program that would allow me to do both, and then I could teach classes to my clients and the community. After training and certifying with this childbirth education program, I had this nagging feeling that it was just not a good fit for me. It was a good class with good information, but I had a really hard time connecting with it. I did not feel like I could be a good educator with content that I didn’t fully buy into, and so after a few months I made the really difficult decision to pivot away, and create my own childbirth education classes.
Together with another educator, Sarah Hughes, we created our own course, called Austin Birth Ed, and have been able to offer these classes to birthing people and their partners all over Austin! Sarah and I both feel so much more connected to the content, and having ownership over what we are teaching has been really beneficial for both of us. We are continuing to grow our course, and hope to add additional courses in the months to come!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.beautifullymadedc.com
- Instagram: beautifullymadedoulacare
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeautifullyMadeDC
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/beautifully-made-doula-care-buda
Image Credits
Samantha Kelly