Jill's Road to Midwifery

Jill and Derick Dillard

For those of you who haven't heard, Jill Dillard is now a Certified Professional Midwife.

In a post to the Dillard Family website, Jill explains how she became interested in midwifery. Do you remember watching Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and Josh and Anna Duggar attend Bradley Method childbirth classes with instructor Teresa Fedosky?

Teresa is also a doula (labor coach). As a teenager, Jill attended a Bradley class with a pregnant teen friend and then began babysitting for the Fedosky family. She became interested in natural childbirth and was invited by Teresa and several local midwives to attend births.

One of the midwives, Venessa Giron, encouraged Jill to consider pursuing midwifery. After much prayer and counsel from her parents, Jill decided to file the necessary paperwork and start logging the hours she spent assisting at births.

As she looked ahead to the future and considered her goal of becoming an international missionary, Jill realized that a midwifery certification would be a useful skill to have. She enrolled in a program through a school in Texas.

Most of her education consisted of studying, taking online classes, and assisting at births in Northwest Arkansas, but she was required to travel to the school several times a year for training and testing. Before taking the seven-hour certification exam last month, Jill took a prep course through Mercy-In-Action.

In her post, Jill expresses her gratefulness to God and all those who provided support and encouragement along her journey to becoming a midwife.

For those who can't read the certificate that Jill is holding in the picture, here is what it says:

The North American Registry of Midwives 

does hereby certify that 

Jill M. Dillard 

having satisfied all requirements set forth by the North American Registry of Midwives

is entitled to be know as a 

NARM

Certified Professional Midwife

with all honors, rights and privileges thereto pertaining. 

Photo courtesy of duggarfamily.com