Military Birth Talk

In this episode of 'Military Birth Talk,' Anni interviews Major Ashley Owen Cunningham, an active-duty Air Force JAG, about her experiences with pregnancy and childbirth while serving in the military. Ashley shares her journey from struggling with infertility to eventually becoming a mother of two boys. She details how she managed her pregnancies and complex births, supported by the military healthcare system, amidst freq...

In this episode of 'Military Birth Talk,' Anni reconnects with Klarissa, an active duty Air Force member, who shares her journey of motherhood since her last appearance on the podcast. Klarissa talks about her traumatic birth experience in England and the subsequent support she received from her leadership and community. She reflects on her role as a First Sergeant and how becoming a mother has made her more empathetic an...

In this episode of 'Military Birth Talk,' Anni interviews Jenna, a military spouse, who shares her diverse birthing experiences within the context of military life. Jenna details her journey from hospital births to home births across various states, and through multiple PCS cycles. She discusses challenges including miscarriage, anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic, and advocating for desired birthing experiences despite ...

In this episode of 'Military Birth Talk,' Anni interviews Allegra, a dietician, lactation consultant, and military spouse . Allegra shares her experiences of navigating pregnancies and births within the military healthcare system, highlighting the differences between military and civilian care, and emphasizing the importance of self-advocacy. She describes her journey with her second child's birth in a military hospi...

In this episode of Military Birth Talk, Anni welcomes back Ali, who previously appeared in Season 1. Ali, a Navy spouse currently living in Japan, shares her latest birth story. Her surprising third pregnancy began amidst a planned trip to the U.S., where she received most of her prenatal care at Walter Reed. Ali experienced significant sickness during this pregnancy, and had another induced labor due to a history of high blood pre...

In this episode of the podcast, Adriana shares her experiences as a mother and active-duty service member. She details her eight years of active service and transition to the reserves, while also parenting three young children and coping with her husband’s deployments. Adriana discusses the challenges she faced during each of her pregnancies, including dealing with unexpected complications and the support she received from her comm...

In this episode of 'Military Birth Talk,' Anni interviews Becca, a Midwest native now living in Japan, who shares her challenging pregnancy journey marked by cholestasis. Becca discusses her husband's military background, her impeccable early pregnancy stages, and the onset of severe itching in her third trimester, leading to a diagnosis of cholestasis. She recounts the rigorous process of advocating for herself in t...

In this episode of Military Birth Talk, Anni interviews Ally, a certified nurse midwife, women's health nurse practitioner, military veteran, and spouse, currently stationed in the Netherlands with her Air Force husband. Ally shares her traumatic experience of giving birth to twin girls in November 2024, detailing her challenges, including being in a remote foreign country with no nearby U.S. base support. She discusses her pr...

In this episode of 'Military Birth Talk,' Anni interviews Anna, a Scottish musician connected and Air Force spouse. Anna shares her journey from meeting her husband on a cruise ship to navigating the challenges of giving birth within the military system. She recounts her diverse birth experiences in Ohio and Japan, emphasizing the significance of hypnobirthing and self-advocacy. Despite some hurdles, including transitioni...

Season five of Military Birth Talk is here! We kick things off with Kimberly as she shares her two birth stories overseas in Japan. Kimberly gave birth both in Okinawa and Yokota, and highlights the differences in medical care, challenges with postpartum preeclampsia, and a gallbladder surgery. Adding another layer to her experience, she was also a GS employee during the time of her first birth and was required to return to work ev...

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 be...

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 exper...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 Massachus...

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 posit...

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 t...

In today’s episode, Space Force spouse Genesis shares her pregnancy and birth story with her son. During her pregnancy, she opted to do genetic testing, which revealed that her son was at risk of being diagnosed with a chromosome abnormality. It was a bumpy road to understand the results and get more information, and the experience made it really hard for Genesis to enjoy the pregnancy. Thankfully, her baby boy was born healthy. Th...