You're listening to episode 101 of the Happy Homebirth Podcast.

In this week's podcast episode we'll be hearing from Jessica Johnston, CPM and co-founder of the Pacific Birth Institute.

Jessica and her co-founders are bent on bringing birth back into the community, which requires more hands and feet on the ground-- more birth attendants, more midwives.  But how, when becoming a birth worker is fraught with barriers? Not everyone can give up their life to be constantly on call, sacrifice everything to attend school, and work as an unpaid apprentice for years on end.

Pacific Birth Institute is on a mission to help break some of the barriers.  They've released an online pre-requisite birth assistant program (available for all), and they've created an incredible training program in Alaska-- one that I hope will pick up steam across the country.

This is so important, as we recognize that bringing birth back into the community is the best way to begin decreasing our national maternal mortality rate.  

If you're considering working in the birth world, be sure to go to pacificbirthinstitute.com and check out the program!