Jill Dillard is beyond thrilled that she has passed her midwifery exam and is now a Certified Professional Midwife. She is now taking a trip down memory lane and sharing what got her interested in the practice in the first place.

"Becoming a midwife has been a long journey that started ways back," she wrote on the Dillard Family Blog. 

"As a teen, I started babysitting for and hanging out with a friend of mine who was a doula (labor support person), Teresa Fedosky, after going through her Bradley childbirth classes with a teen friend of mine who was expecting."

Back then, Jill had only been to two of her mother Michelle's births, and as such did not really have much experience with babies. But the more she went with her doula friend to help assist childbirths, the more experienced she became. After a few more years of being a doula assistant, a midwife named Venessa Giron told Jill that she needed to seriously think about becoming a midwife herself.

"I was content assisting and at that point I didn't like the thought of being the supervising midwife at births and taking on that responsibility. Venessa encouraged me to at least start the paperwork and log my experience for my hands on portion so if down the road I changed my mind then I would already have started counting my numbers. I prayed and talked with my parents and we felt this was a good move," she said.

Jill ended up enrolling in a midwifery school in Texas, where she was required to take classes using "distance learning." Once every few months, she would travel there for a few days of training and tests and help assist Venessa with more childbirths.

"I had finished my clinicals by the time I got married, and decided to switch back to the self-paced study track for the next year and a half so I wouldn't have to do as much traveling and so I could prepare for my big exam. I took one more online midwifery study prep course thru Mercy-In-Action this year before taking and passing my seven hour exam," Jill shared.

She feels extremely grateful to God for His grace, mercy, and faithfulness in her journey towards become a CPM. Jill added that her husband Derick's encouragement during her studies was very uplifting as well.