diff --git a/bin/all_sky_search/pycbc_calculate_psd b/bin/all_sky_search/pycbc_calculate_psd
index 9764250fc9f..bcfd3ab1676 100755
--- a/bin/all_sky_search/pycbc_calculate_psd
+++ b/bin/all_sky_search/pycbc_calculate_psd
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 """ Calculate psd estimates for analysis segments
 """
-import logging, argparse, numpy, multiprocessing, time, copy
+import logging, argparse, numpy, time, copy
 from six.moves import zip_longest
 import pycbc, pycbc.psd, pycbc.strain, pycbc.events
 from pycbc.io import HFile
+from pycbc.pool import BroadcastPool as Pool
 from pycbc.fft.fftw import set_measure_level
 from pycbc.workflow import resolve_td_option
 from ligo.segments import segmentlist, segment
@@ -101,7 +102,7 @@ segments = segmentlist(frozenset(segments))
 logging.info('%d psds to calculate', len(segments))
 
 if len(segments) > 0:
-    pool = multiprocessing.Pool(args.cores)
+    pool = Pool(args.cores)
     psds = pool.map_async(get_psd, zip(segments, range(len(segments))))
     psds = psds.get()
 else:
diff --git a/bin/inference/pycbc_inference_plot_movie b/bin/inference/pycbc_inference_plot_movie
index 7db38b92016..f5b3fed9f50 100644
--- a/bin/inference/pycbc_inference_plot_movie
+++ b/bin/inference/pycbc_inference_plot_movie
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ import logging
 import subprocess
 import os
 import glob
-from multiprocessing import Pool
+from pycbc.pool import BroadcastPool as Pool
 
 import numpy
 
diff --git a/bin/pycbc_inspiral b/bin/pycbc_inspiral
index 61e769ac2e7..24193310714 100644
--- a/bin/pycbc_inspiral
+++ b/bin/pycbc_inspiral
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ import argparse
 import numpy
 import itertools
 import time
-from multiprocessing import Pool
+from pycbc.pool import BroadcastPool as Pool
 
 import pycbc
 from pycbc import vetoes, psd, waveform, strain, scheme, fft, DYN_RANGE_FAC, events
diff --git a/bin/pycbc_optimal_snr b/bin/pycbc_optimal_snr
index 08fa83c4ae9..121f0b8c1ab 100644
--- a/bin/pycbc_optimal_snr
+++ b/bin/pycbc_optimal_snr
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ from ligo.lw import lsctables
 import pycbc
 import pycbc.inject
 import pycbc.psd
+from pycbc.pool import BroadcastPool as Pool
 from pycbc.filter import sigma, make_frequency_series
 from pycbc.types import TimeSeries, FrequencySeries, zeros, float32, \
                         MultiDetOptionAction, load_frequencyseries
@@ -312,7 +313,7 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
 
     if opts.cores > 1:
         logging.info('Starting workers')
-        pool = multiprocessing.Pool(processes=opts.cores)
+        pool = Pool(processes=opts.cores)
         iterator = pool.imap_unordered(compute_optimal_snr, inj_table)
     else:
         # do not bother spawning extra processes if running single-core
diff --git a/pycbc/__init__.py b/pycbc/__init__.py
index 99f4cc6ef37..49f4d97dcde 100644
--- a/pycbc/__init__.py
+++ b/pycbc/__init__.py
@@ -207,18 +207,6 @@ def makedir(path):
 # platforms (mac) that are silly and don't use the standard gcc.
 if sys.platform == 'darwin':
     HAVE_OMP = False
-
-    # MacosX after python3.7 switched to 'spawn', however, this does not
-    # preserve common state information which we have relied on when using
-    # multiprocessing based pools.
-    import multiprocessing
-    if multiprocessing.get_start_method(allow_none=True) is None:
-        if hasattr(multiprocessing, 'set_start_method'):
-            multiprocessing.set_start_method('fork')
-    elif multiprocessing.get_start_method() != 'fork':
-        warnings.warn("PyCBC requires the use of the 'fork' start method"
-                      " for multiprocessing, it is currently set to {}"
-                      .format(multiprocessing.get_start_method()))
 else:
     HAVE_OMP = True
 
diff --git a/pycbc/inference/models/brute_marg.py b/pycbc/inference/models/brute_marg.py
index 3843a1e88e0..0b419838dd6 100644
--- a/pycbc/inference/models/brute_marg.py
+++ b/pycbc/inference/models/brute_marg.py
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 import logging
 import numpy
 
-from multiprocessing import Pool
+from pycbc.pool import BroadcastPool as Pool
 from scipy.special import logsumexp
 
 from .gaussian_noise import BaseGaussianNoise
diff --git a/pycbc/pool.py b/pycbc/pool.py
index a770b9537ec..bffa2202689 100644
--- a/pycbc/pool.py
+++ b/pycbc/pool.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 """
 import multiprocessing.pool
 import functools
-from multiprocessing import TimeoutError, cpu_count
+from multiprocessing import TimeoutError, cpu_count, get_context
 import types
 import signal
 import atexit
@@ -49,13 +49,20 @@ def _shutdown_pool(p):
 class BroadcastPool(multiprocessing.pool.Pool):
     """ Multiprocessing pool with a broadcast method
     """
-    def __init__(self, processes=None, initializer=None, initargs=(), **kwds):
+    def __init__(self, processes=None, initializer=None, initargs=(),
+                 context=None, **kwds):
         global _process_lock
         global _numdone
         _process_lock = multiprocessing.Lock()
         _numdone = multiprocessing.Value('i', 0)
         noint = functools.partial(_noint, initializer)
-        super(BroadcastPool, self).__init__(processes, noint, initargs, **kwds)
+
+        # Default is fork to preserve child memory inheritance and
+        # copy on write
+        if context is None:
+            context = get_context("fork")
+        super(BroadcastPool, self).__init__(processes, noint, initargs,
+                                            context=context, **kwds)
         atexit.register(_shutdown_pool, self)
 
     def __len__(self):
@@ -166,6 +173,7 @@ def use_mpi(require_mpi=False, log=True):
         size = rank = 0
     return use_mpi, size, rank
 
+
 def choose_pool(processes, mpi=False):
     """ Get processing pool
     """