S2 E7: Jennie Joseph — Birthwork as community work

On this episode we are delighted to introduce you to our last guest of the season, Jennie Joseph, a British-trained midwife, advocate, teacher, and business-owner. We start our conversation off by talking about the history of midwifery and the difference between the fields of obstetrics and midwifery. We hear some specifics surrounding the birth mortality rate in the US compared to other countries, as well as why Black women (and Black folks with uteruses) are the ones most impacted.

Jennie shares with us her experience as a British-trained midwife in the US, and her work with marginalized populations. We are also fortunate enough to hear Jennie share the 4 tenets of The JJ Way®, which are the foundational teachings in her midwifery school, Common Sense Childbirth. Jennie shares how the JJ Way is working to revolutionize birthing for women in communities of high need. We finish up our interview by asking Jennie about what she’d like to see more of in the birthing and wellness world.

During the post-interview conversation, Zahra and Hien talk about how amazing Jennie is, and how much we love to see advocates in action. Plus we get into our feelings about children, talk about the weather (and maybe climate change?), and of course, dive into some Enneagram conversation.

Website: https://commonsensechildbirth.org/

Jennie Joseph is a British-trained midwife who fights to ensure every person has their healthiest possible pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience with dignity and support.

Jennie created The JJ Way® which is an evidence-based, maternity care model delivering readily-accessible, patient-centered, culturally-congruent care to women in areas that she terms 'materno-toxic zones'. Her focus and drive is to ensure that Black women and other marginalized people remain safe and empowered inside broken and inequitable maternity health systems that have become dangerous and all too often, lethal.

She is the Executive Director of her own non-profit corporation Commonsense Childbirth Inc. which operates a training institute, health clinics and a birthing center in Orlando, Florida, and is also the founder of the National Perinatal Task Force, a grassroots organization whose mission is the elimination of racial disparities in maternal child health in the USA. In July 2020 her school, Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery became the first and only privately-owned, nationally accredited midwifery school owned by a Black woman in the United States.

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Theme song: Katy Pearson