Samantha Mazade – Change Maker: MSP Spring 2019 Scholarship

For the Spring 2019 Doula  Maternal Support Practitioner Program Scholarship at bebo mia inc we had some amazing applicants and are thrilled to present our winners’ submissions. With the help of some incredible sponsors like Olivia Scobie & community partners, we were able to offer 8  full Scholarships and 8 partial Scholarships to our combined fertility, birth and postpartum doula training    – all hand-selected by our very own  Scholarship Committee!

We are thrilled to announce the 2019 winner of the Change-Maker Award! This award recognizes an applicant whose project idea or business plan reflects ingenuity, inventive solutions, and creativity that sets them apart from their peers. The recipient will be an out-of-the-box thinker whose ideas challenge the status quo and will aim to change birthing outcomes through new and different ideas.

Hi bebo mia-ans!

I’m Samantha. As of March 19, 2019 I’m officially a FREE (single) woman with two wonderful children in my care fulltime. Although I believed and clung to the institution of marriage, my partner was never deserving of the role I gave him. For years, I allowed blatant disrespect and abuse to occur in my life for the sake of keeping my marriage. With the natural birth of my daughter, I discovered my worth, power, and self-love. It took a few more months, but I developed the courage to stand on my own and say, “NO MORE!” I ended the relationship, letting go of my determination to never divorce and holding on to my self-worth and love. After an intense time of suffering, cutting dead weight, and healing traumas, I’m ecstatic to blast into the next chapter of my life, especially now that it includes becoming a doula!!!

I want to become a doula as my two completely opposite birth experiences showed me that a caring and informative support system is transformative in the style of birth a woman will experience. I’m passionate about becoming the support I lacked in my first birth – for other scared and alone women. I want to empower women to know they have power, worth, and control.

In my search to achieve my dream career, I stumbled upon bebo mia. I immediately noticed the platform they created for aspiring doulas to be truly supported and educated. I like that bebo mia saw a problem, accepted they were a part of the solution, and completely changed the status quo of what it is like to become a doula. I found the scholarship and wanted it to achieve having a driven, purposeful life and to provide for my two children doing it. I am passionate about birthing education, providing birth choices, and supporting families in the postpartum phase of life. I believe bebo mia is the perfect starting point to achieve this as they are radicalizing the way doula training is done and truly support its students, much as I wish to radicalize the birthing experience and postpartum life of parents and support my parents.

My long term goal is to add an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant to my doula practice and to fund advocating and lobbying for paid parental leave. I will dominantly be a postpartum doula but I would like to work with fellow WIC mothers and teach a childbirth experience class with a focus on choices, informed consent, and creating a support team. I have been on WIC and my youngest child still participates in WIC. (To be on WIC means you are poor enough to need state assistance and most are single or acting single moms.) My goal is that these women don’t feel alone, and to empower these women to know and stand for what they want and not be subjected to the typical bullying that occurs in hospital births.

Receiving this scholarship is the confirmation that I’m on my correct path. I am determined to see it through! Can’t wait to see what we all achieve from this training!!!

DEADLINE TO APPLY FOR THE FALL SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS

AUGUST 25TH, 2019 AT 11:59 PM PST.

Find an application guide HERE