Welcome to the Free Birth Podcast, a supportive space for people who are learning,

exploring and celebrating their autonomous choices in childbirth.

Together, we'll unpack truths, share personal stories,

and claim our ability to birth freely and intuitively. Here's your host, Emily Sal day. Today on the show we have Jessal who after a hospital birth said never again and

free-birthed her second child in her home in Italy and then her most recent baby

in Virginia. Jessal talks about being a military family and navigating free-birthing on base.

She also shares how she dealt with her nervous husband and the actions she took to step outside the system one birth at a time. So with my first pregnancy we were just three months into our marriage. I did not want kids for a few years.

So it was definitely unexpected. My husband had gone to the doctor to get his semen tested. I don't know why because we never spoke about it. He comes back and tells me the doctor tells me I'm only 19% fertile and it would be really really hard for me to ever have kids.

Wait wait wait 19?

Yes and that is so specific.

Yeah, well he had like the whole lab work like drawn up everything like he actually did the lab yeah and I was just like well 19 is a lot it's not zero

I was like so there's still a chance huh but after that he knew I had we had been in in Afghanistan prior to that and for a year because he's in the service. Oh you both were in the service. Yeah. I was as well. Is that how you met? Yes, that is how we met. Oh, wow. So after he left, I got off my birth control because that was kind of where I started, guess heading towards a more natural you know way of life and I knew that the birth control was bad and all that so I was like since you're not going to be here I'm getting off my birth control.

And how old are you at this part?

I was 22.

Okay, so you're pretty young.

Yeah.

You got married and he must have for some reason had it in his head.

Because that's kind of unusual.

I'm trying to think like maybe he had some, you know, story in his head because that's kind of unusual I'm trying to think like maybe he had

you know story in his head that he was sterile or something yeah and he was

like I just feel like I'm not and I asked him I was like but what makes you think that I was like we're not even trying to have kids

huh what are you doing and so then he knew I wasn't on birth control and all that and kind of like after that

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