The Pregnancy Help Podcast recently reached a remarkable milestone, demonstrating the podcast’s impact on pregnancy help.
The Pregnancy Help Podcast surpassed 100,000 listens in the first week of August, a significant accomplishment in the world of digital programming.
“Reaching 100,000 listens is especially meaningful,” said Lauren Bell, Multimedia specialist and the podcast's producer since March 2026. Bell oversees ideating, scheduling, hosting, and producing the podcast.
“The podcast serves a specific audience focused on pregnancy help, leadership, client care, legal issues, fundraising, marketing, advocacy, and more,” Bell said. “Reaching this milestone represents 100,000 opportunities to share the life-saving work of the pregnancy help movement with listeners around the world, amplifying the message, expertise, and impact of those serving women, men, and families.”
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The Pregnancy Help Podcast is powered by Heartbeat International, the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and globally. The podcast falls under the supervision of the Heartbeat Academy, Heartbeat’s training platform.
Pregnancy Help Podcast has discussed crucial matters as they break in the news along with any and all more fundamental or more “evergreen” topics of concern for the pregnancy help community.
The podcast creates and hosts important conversations by bringing together leaders, experts, and frontline voices from across the pregnancy help community to discuss the issues shaping and impacting the movement. Episodes offer practical insights, encouragement, and real-world solutions to assist pregnancy help organizations in better serving women, families, and communities.
Launched in 2018, its original purpose was to create another accessible way to communicate information, ideas, encouragement, and education to people serving in the pregnancy help movement. Heartbeat saw an opportunity to establish the platform because there was such a wealth of knowledge and experience within the movement, Bell said, and the podcast provided a way to give many different voices a place to share that knowledge.
The podcast began with recorded, informal but informative conversations between Mary Peterson (Heartbeat’s Housing Specialist at the time) and different members of the housing community, said Dawn Lunsford, former director of Academy.
“The response to them was very positive so we looked at how we may expand, turning it into an actual podcast with a wider net,” Lunsford said.
In trying to capture a broader audience to include anyone involved in a pregnancy help organization as a staff member (paid or volunteer), as well as potentially donors, the podcast was branded closely with Pregnancy Help News. Former Producer Christine Grimmett began producing episodes in 2018 and over time cultivated its growth from one or two a month to one or two a week.
“The podcast provided a pivotal place for Heartbeat’s Ministry Services department to unpack what COVID meant for ministries beginning in 2020 through 2021,” Lunsford said, “and together with Pregnancy Help News helped to educate pregnancy help staff and supporters about Dobbs and about what centers dealt with post-Dobbs in 2022.”
The Dobbs decision was the topic in three of the top 10 episodes overall to date, exemplifying listeners’ interest in crucial issues affecting pregnancy help and the podcast delivering conversations to that end. Issues of interest to the pregnancy help community covered in the remainder of the top 10 episodes were FDA regulation of chemical abortion, the state of the pregnancy help movement, prenatal diagnosis, relationships and sexual integrity, pre-abortion screening, Abortion Pill Reversal, and Heartbeat’s Annual Conference.
The Pregnancy Help Podcast produces five to six episodes each month. It features three monthly podcasts - Marketing Minute, Coffee with Kirk, the Pregnancy Help News Brief. To date, 334 episodes have been produced.
Pregnancy Help Podcast also has an all time average of 84% for impactful plays. Impactful plays, or intentional or standardized "plays," are episode listens through at least 75% of an episode. General podcast completion rates typically range between 50% and 70%, making the 84% rate another outstanding achievement for the podcast and indicating exceptional audience engagement.
The current podcast feed now includes leadership, client care, legal updates, fundraising, marketing, testimony, fatherhood, news, devotionals, and many other topics.
“The podcast is truly a collaborative effort,” Bell told Pregnancy Help News, “with episode ideas generated across multiple departments within Heartbeat International, including Affiliate Services and Communications and Marketing.”
“While we frequently feature external guests, we also love highlighting the wealth of knowledge and expertise within our own organization by featuring a variety of Heartbeat staff members as interviewers and contributors,” she said.
Heartbeat International President Jor-El Godsey commended the podcast’s milestone, noting the broad range of voices and topics covered.
"Pregnancy Help Podcast has been a great venue for everything from quick, critically timed conversations to timeless spiritual conversations,” Godsey said. "So many great guests - some polished professional presenters, many practical missionaries in our field - have powered learning and laughter, wisdom and wit, as well as knowledge and know-how."
Tweet This: Pregnancy Help Podcast has been a great venue for everything from quick, critically timed conversations to timeless spiritual conversations.
“This milestone shows how we've shared the journey with many voices from our community and for our community,” said Godsey. “I can't wait for the next 100K!"
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News. This article has been updated with additional information.
