ABOUT GBC TRAINERS
Meet Our International Trainer
Shanna has been interested in birth work and serving others since she was young. As a mother of 5, she has experienced several different pregnancies and births. This has driven her passion to learn even more and to share that knowledge with others. She has been in the medical field since she was 19, working in different roles, including being an EMT for over a decade, and surgically removing corneas for transplant. As she started to homeschool her children, she knew she wanted to make the transition into birth work. She is certified through ICEA as well as holds certifications from StillBirthday, & Global Birth Community as a Full Care Doula. She spent several years living in the most diverse square mile in America, working with immigrants and refugees through birth work. That time inspired her to return to her home city to start a nonprofit birth organization to help serve the underserved populations in her own hometown area. Journey Birth and Wellness was born through her passion for birth and to train up women from different communities and cultures to support their own sisters, neighbors, and friends in birth support and education.
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Shanna started a nonprofit to be able to accomplish her goals of being able to provide childbirth education and doulas services to the underserved communities in the area. Three zip codes in her area have infant mortality rates 3-4 times the national average. She believes that having women trained and equipped from these zip codes to be the voice on birth to their communities can make all the difference. JBW mission is to train up doulas to be able to support and educate women from within their own communities. She has trained up some of the first doulas of color, Spanish and Karen/Thai speaking birth professionals in the area to start working toward this goal. Having education and support available from their own community and in their own language empowers them to be able to make the best choices for themselves and their babies leading to better birth outcomes for mom and baby.
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Shanna has then taken her passion online and overseas to be able to multiply her work globally. This is why Global Birth Community was birthed! She believes that birth is a critical time in a women's life and they should have access to all the education, support, and community that they seek. It takes a village to raise a child, and she wants to help women thrive into motherhood. She now trains doula all across the US and the global through GBC. In the last 12 months she has trained women from 7 different countries in-person in Kyrgyzstan and South Africa. She plans on taking 1-2 trips each year overseas to train up indigenous birth workers at no costs to them. This training combines her two biggest passion of working cross-culturally and birth work!
