We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Samantha Fletcher-Tudor. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Samantha below.
Samantha, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?
How I Came to Midwifery I was born in New Jersey, in an apartment to my teen mother, prematurely. I grew up all over the country for 8 years and settled in Michigan where I have spent most of my adult life. I grew up with a different background than most. I found my passion to serve after aging out of the foster care system. I started as a waitress, evolving into a professional cleaner by 24. Serving families’ homes started to feel like the farthest from helping, my heart began to wander for something deeper and more meaningful in my work. In 2015, I found my calling to serve on a deeper level, I discovered birth work and support professionals, “doulas.”
Giving birth to my first daughter, 20 years young, was a trauma I can never forget, but also an experience that has written the path I am walking now. I had been forced through 3 inductions before she was born. My body had been through more than I could handle, and my values as a human were ignored and belittled. I gave birth to my second daughter in Tennessee at 22, with my grandmother by my side, my doula (before I knew what a Doula was). Giving birth shaped me, but motherhood is molding me into the support professional I needed during my pregnancies.
Three years passed when I listened to my soul’s desire to serve from my heart. 2018, led me to self-discovery, bravery, and curious inquisition. I crossed paths with a local midwife who directed me toward my journey at MCU. She helped me see that what I was truly seeking is serving the sacred human through the childbearing years, birth, and postpartum processes. It has been a powerful and uprooting experience, but I am here, showing up for all my fears with more courage each day. I dig deep to find my momentum and self-assurance. I shift my struggles to abilities and find ways to accentuate my skills to access growth and cognitive evolution.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Greetings to you!
It’s so nice to share a bit of myself with you.
I am an enthusiastic individual.
I live through my passion for serving others, it is my love language. I love nature and finding adventures in places less common to others. I enjoy yoga, photography, dance, painting, and cooking. I am a friendly person, yet shy, and I find this journey through Midwifery school is bringing out my truest, best self.
I have a passion to serve my community in various ways. I have my soul set on a lifelong career as a women’s care & birth professional! My deepest desire is to serve the community by providing feminine empowerment, encouraging self-love/care practices, and independent strength-building through positive lifestyle choices.
I am a DONA-trained Doula in Birth and postpartum
I am certified & trained by Karen Strange as a neonatal resuscitation provider.
I am trained & certified by The American Red Cross in basic life support and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
I am trained & certified as a Mental Health First Aid Responder
I am trained in suicide crisis support, prevention, and awareness
I am passionate about volunteer and community involvement.
I have been a volunteer Doula with the Southeast Michigan Doula Project since October 2019.
I appreciate the ability to work with different families through that resource.
I am the founder & manager of the two non-profit segments of my practice: Courageous Warrior Herbal Doula & Support Professional:
The Valor Den – a donation-based supply resource for mothers and babies in need of essentials and supplies like clothing, baby furniture, and other needs.
The Courageous Kitchen – a meal delivery program that connects low-income or high-risk mothers and their families in need with nutrition-based, fresh meals, produce, and healthy baked goods.
In my role as a Doula, I offer support to all people, their partners, and their families before, during, and after significant transitional periods where support is most needed.
My role is to help facilitate safe, positive, and empowering transitional life experiences by offering the appropriate emotional and physical support needed during your time.
Having a dedicated doula by your side support may offer you a safe ally in an emotionally demanding situation.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
The experiences I’ve seen from childhood to motherhood were designed to build me into the woman who is writing for this piece of my journey. My soul carries empathy, compassion & equal parts logic to provide people with the support they are seeking. My exposure to birth was few until 2020. At 18 I was called to escort a friend from work in active labor to the hospital two counties away. By the time we arrived at the hospital, Mom was crowning! I didn’t know then how powerful that experience would be to my journey of supporting people.
Supporting the Divine Feminine & Masculine Through All Life Transitions
I aim to continue my evolution as a compassionate and empathetic support professional, of excellence!
I understand the sincere need for stable connection, empowerment, and support in the feminine community.
I continue to educate myself in the mental health and women’s health field to partner with my own life experiences to bring strong and reliable support to women like you, looking for a deeper connection to themselves.
I believe in the Courage we all possess within us. I believe in the work necessary to remind women of their power, their strength, and their ability to conquer their fears and insecurities.
People across Michigan and the world, face oppression through victimization and community neglect. Individuals have been strangled by history often left without their human right to develop strong relationships within their communities. Isolation from support may not appear extreme, but it is nonetheless life-altering in the mind and human dynamic.
I have survived ridicule and judgments but I continue to evolve from isolating life experiences including:
Postpartum depression,
sexual identity & bisexuality,
anxiety,
grief,
low self-esteem/confidence,
post-traumatic stress disorder,
divorce,
childhood trauma,
childhood & adult sexual assault,
childhood abandonment,
Autism spectrum, sensory processing disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, & obsessive compulsive disorder
adoption & foster care,
child loss,
fear,
breaking generational cycles of trauma.
As a survivor of my historical circumstances, I too often found that support was scarce and even more challenging to establish considering the time and circumstances. Through my recovery, healing, growth, and continued education as a doula and student midwife, I sincerely desire to bring what I need to those around me.
You are not alone!
I offer a perspective of unfound empathy & compassion to everyone. I value people entirely & the families they create. Being a unique support for those looking for natural birthing assistance/ guidance & honest information is a privilege I will vow my life to. Dedicating my life to being by their side through the most life-changing experiences of their lives overwhelms me with joy and excitement!
Community building & connecting is fundamental to women reawakening their courageous nature. Uniting in love for ourselves, our babies & one another can create miracles. Being a midwife is the greatest privilege & support of all. For some women, a midwife could be the closest thing they have to a mother, rooting them on, and instilling confidence through pregnancy and labor. When I had my second child, I was still in the most abusive relationship I had ever faced. I was still misguided and unsupported. Where he made me feel worthless, my midwife rebuilt me through reminders of self-love & sincere education. Assertive guidance to be a strong independent mother & tough love.
I hadn’t realized how capable I was until I completely birthed my daughter, still feeling the smile on my face as I saw her reflection of life in the labor mirror! My midwife was kind & compassionate & always respectful when it came to my birthing plan. My first birth was one induction nightmare after the next. Leading to a horrific & unforgettable memory. I was uninformed & again unsupported. I felt taken advantage of and that first experience I feel, led to my inability to adequately care for my first child post-partum. I came to my midwife vulnerable, longing for a mindful pregnancy and birth. I wanted to be the mother I knew I was capable of. I knew that started immediately once I found out I was expecting again. I wanted to do everything in my power to be the best mother I could be for my child. My daughter is now thriving at 12 years old & more of a blessing than I could have imagined. Motherhood is the greatest education & it has shown me daily what I want to represent during this lifetime.
Lacking a support system of any kind during my first pregnancy led to many events that could have been avoided. My midwife showed me how to lean into myself for the support I was searching for, while she promised to guide & lead me through every step of my pregnancy & birth. Support is fundamental to adequate survival. My midwife showed me a glimpse of what type of support was available to me. Becoming a Doula, to serve women & their families now is a privilege that led me graciously toward becoming a midwife.
I want to advise families with the proper information & education about their pregnancy and their birth up to post-partum. I want to empower birthing people through their birthing experiences in ways that allow them to remember how capable & wonderfully able they are! To remind them of their Courage!
I do not wish to build a legacy. Fame is not my mission. Service through honesty, love & integrity is the vibration I seek to send out in waves. I have a dream, to build a full-spectrum Midwifery and doula practice that provides many avenues of support, education & guidance.
One that fosters a community of fellowship & compassionate connection. I want to create a practice that other avenues to live a healthy, mindful life. A safe place for young teens seeking education and support, couples or individuals TTC, and expecting persons seeking prenatal guidance, natural birthing assistance & postpartum care. Offering space for prenatal & mom/baby yoga, spiritual & categorized support group connections, nutritional support/education, holistic practice education, full spectrum Doula services, apothecary, feminine health education, breastfeeding assistance & education, one-on-one support & natural parenting classes & support.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Gene Keys by Richard Rudd. Shadow work is pivotal to growth and evolution. I believe we exist in a period of cognitive evolution as much as spiritual evolution and remembering.
Doing the inner work is absolutely necessary not only in our personal lives but as experts in our waking lives.
I dedicate my growth and success to the personal choice to understand how I may be getting in my own way at times, or walking through life with actions, biases, behaviors, and mental processes that could otherwise benefit from a new perspective. A new love and compassion that the hardened world tries to force-feed vulnerable and tired minds.
If we take a step back from the autopilot and feel more into who we are and what we want, we find ourselves, and with that, we understand there are keys to unlocking the doors we may be stuck behind.
Genetic keys that are coded and waiting to be turned on and enlightened. I cannot learn from others what I can only learn from walking inward.
No matter my profession or my hat that day, I will always need to have balance, focus, awareness, and mindfulness of myself and the world and people around me. I will always need compassion and I will always need empathy, This book opened up my mind to see beyond the material aspects of what I work and wake for each day.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thecourageousdoula.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1CourageousDoula
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aPeacefulStar
- Twitter: twitter.com/courageousdoula
- Other: https://behervillage.com/partners/courageouswarriorfemininesupportdoula https://sites.google.com/midwifery.edu/samanthalynnfletcher-tudor/home www.etsy.com/shop/TheCourageousDoulaCo https://lovestarsapothecary.square.site
Image Credits
Fletcher, Samantha