81. Navy Spouse Alice's Thanksgiving Homebirth

In this episode of “Military Birth Talk,” Alice returns three months postpartum to share her second San Diego birth story. After a low-risk but exhausting pregnancy while parenting a toddler, she chose a planned home birth because the local TRICARE-accepting birth center had closed, and found supportive care with a midwife practice and a TRICARE-covered doula; her husband, active-duty Navy, was away for two months mid-pregnancy, and her mom flew from the UK near her due date to help with their two-year-old. Labor began on Thanksgiving, intensified through the day, and progressed extremely quickly: the midwives arrived after 5:30 p.m., her waters broke, she entered the pool, and the baby was born about 10 minutes later. She describes a positive, intimate postpartum at home, cord blood banking due to her older daughter’s diabetes, minimal stitches, and the challenges of divided attention and early solo parenting when her husband left for a month soon after. Follow along with Military Birth Talk:Instagram: @militarybirthtalkFacebook: Military Birth Resource Network & Postpartum CoalitionSubmit your birth story!forms.gle/3TT7FyV1QQV3RZGc8