In today’s episode we’re hearing from Reyna, who is a Navy Spouse. Reyna shares the birth story of her second child, who was born at the very end of 2019. Reyna and her family PCS’ed overseas when she was 6 months pregnant, only to find out almost immediately that she’d be sent back to the states to give birth. Reyna had a planned c-section and then a few days later, she ended up at the ER with severe stomach pain which ended up being what the doctors called retained products of coneption. After an emergency D&C she had a few weeks to recover in the airbnb before needing to fly back to Japan, and then her husband deployed shortly thereafter. Needless to say Reyna really went through a lot during this birth and postpartum and despite it all she still devotes much of her time and energy to making the military life easier for other families through her own work on her blog and podcast called The Desk of a Navy Wife.

Check out these resources from Reyna:
Website: https://www.deskofanavywife.com/
Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zvZenaRy479Oi34ATN8RP?si=e5fc13d20d8542c7
Newsletter for Additional Tips & Resources: https://www.deskofanavywife.com/about
IG: https://www.instagram.com/thedeskofanavywife/
FB Community: https://www.facebook.com/the.desk.of.a.navy.wife.community/

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In today’s episode, I’m speaking Hannah who is Active Duty in the Navy as an ER nurse. Her first birth took place at the MTF where she worked, and it was a very long experience which ended with a forceps delivery resulting in a birth injury that took nearly a year to be resolved. Her second experience was totally different, and ended up being an accidental unassisted homebirth, which she describes as an amazing and empowering experience. We talk about the importance of self advocacy and doing everything you can to be informed about your choices when preparing for birth.

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In today’s episode I’m speaking with LT Samantha Mclaughlin, who’s Active Duty. LT Mclaughlin shares the birth story of her daughter who was born just shy of 33 weeks, after her water broke at 31 weeks. At the time, Samantha was working as a Labor & Delivery Nurse in 29 Palms, but because there was no NICU there they had to be transferred to another local hospital about 45 minutes away. Samantha stayed as a patient for 2 weeks until giving birth via C-Section, and then her daughter stayed in the NICU for 21 days before being discharged. Samantha talks about how her medical knowledge impacted her experience, navigating the totally unexpected way that her birth and postpartum period went, and what it was like having to return to work.

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In today’s episode I’m speaking with Melissa, who is Active Duty in the Coast Guard. Melissa mostly focuses on her third birth experience, which was a natural birth through a midwife clinic out in town. She had had epidural births with her prior two and wanted to try something different this time so she dove into hypnobirthing and really prepared for a different experience with her third and final baby. We also chat a lot about the dynamics of parenting in a dual mil family and especially the experience of giving birth and then managing all the competing demands of motherhood and being active duty.

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In today’s episode, I’m joined by Navy Spouse Ebony. Ebony is a homeschooling mom of five kids, and she and her family are currently stationed in Stuttgart. In this episode Ebony shares the birth story of her third child, who was born at home on base in Yokosuka Japan, while her husband was deployed. Ebony had a wonderful team around her and describes the experience as incredible and amazing. Ebony is also a doula and hypnobirthing instructor so we chat a bit about her professional experience as well, and her take overall on trends and progress in the birth world.

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In today’s episode I’m speaking with Dr. Jen Bertoluzzi who is a Coast Guard Spouse and Physical Therapist with a focus on pelvic floor PT. Jen’s birth experiences begin with a miscarriage that happened right at tbeginning of the COVID 19 lockdowns. They got pregnant again, and Jen gave birth out in town with a team that was not very supportive of her birth plans and it ended up being a very long delivery. They PCSed from Massachusetts to Oregon at 2 months postpartum, and once they were settled Jen began to look into pelvic floor training as part of her PT focus, after working through some of her own pelvic floor issues after birth.

Find Dr. Bertoluzzi on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at @craftmywellness.

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Alice is a Navy Spouse who is originally from the UK, where she worked as a licensed midwife. She joins Military Birth Talk today to share the story of her pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience with her first daughter. She had originally planned for a low intervention birth center birth, and ended up transferring to the hospital when her labor stalled. Though though things didn't go to plan, she remembers her birth positively, which she attributes to the fact that she was able to stay in control of her decisions during the experience.

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In today’s episode, I’m speaking with Captain Jessica Cooper, who is a medical service officer serving in the Army. During Jessica’s pregnancy she saw midwives through the community hospital on Fort Campbell, and she had a really positive experience there. She ended up being induced when her baby started having heart decelerations during a 40 week check up, and even though it was a very long, 46-hour induction, she was still able to give birth vaginally. Due to some tearing, Jessica had a longer than average recovery, and she also started a Captain’s career course shortly after giving birth, so the postpartum period was a little hectic. We talk about all that and more!

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