Ep.1/ Dr. Jill’s Fertility Story
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MH911 Episode 1 Dr. Jill's Fertility Story[00:00:00] Dr. Jill Baker: Hello, maternal Health 9 1 1. What's your emergency?
[00:00:08] 1, 2, 3, 4.
[00:00:14] Hi, I'm Dr. Jill Baker. I'm a wife, a mother, a community health scholar and executive director and a fertility coach. More than 12 years ago, I was on my own infertility journey. Since then, I've made it my personal mission to help anyone who is on their own. To become apparent as well as shed light on infertility and maternal health experiences of bipo women and couples.
[00:00:42] Now let's begin this week's episode of Maternal Health 9 1 1.
[00:00:52] Hello everybody and welcome to this very special episode of my new podcast, [00:01:00] maternal Health 9 1 1. This is your host, Dr. Joel Baker. You all may have been fans of a Tribe Paul Fertility podcast, and if that is true, I just wanna say a special thank you to anyone who followed the show or listened to the show that.
[00:01:19] Meant a lot to me and that to be the beginning of this work for myself that is very personal for me in making sure that there's more awareness about infertility, fertility, health, the maternal health. Disparities that people of color, especially black women and couples, are still plagued by. I would say, and I wanted to take the time for this first episode to really get into my own infertility journey and.
[00:01:56] How I ultimately came into this [00:02:00] work, and usually you come into this work or people that I've been able to talk to in the last kind of five to 10 years, is that there's been some kind of personal experience that. Has led them to being an advocate for particular issues of passion and issues that are important.
[00:02:22] And so with me, I would say that's . Definitely true. So for those of you who may not know, I am right now, I am a mother of three and, uh, my twins are, oh my gosh, they're gonna, Oh yeah. Gavin and Jim are going to be 12 in May, which is crazy. And I have a five year old to name Amari, which is a whole different story, and we'll, I'll have a whole other separate episode about him.
[00:02:52] But today's episode is going to really focus. All my twins and just backtracking with, just [00:03:00] sharing with you all the journey for how my husband and I became parents and it wasn't an easy journey by, by far. I still tell people, especially with now. Being able to, as a fertility coach, work with couples and women going through infertility, that it was one of the hardest times in our marriage.
[00:03:25] We've been together as a couple for maybe 22 years. And definitely it was, I would say probably maybe the second most challenging time in our relationship was us trying to become parents. So let me just set the stage for you all. So I'm currently what? I'm 44 now. be 45 in May. I say that proudly, I was, gosh, I think it was, I'm pretty sure it was maybe 2009, but, Was definitely, I know this for sure that I was in [00:04:00] my, the last year of my doctoral program at Drexel, Dr.
[00:04:03] A pelvic health program. Yeah. So shout out to Drexel and to all, all my friends that I graduated with. So I think I was in BB the fourth year of my program at that point. And I would definitely say, and I think this is something. people can relate to, especially women who have careers. And definitely in the beginning of your career that, or even with just making goal and always being a person to have goals and to, as Michelle Obama set it, Very eloquently, and I definitely related to being the type of person who was just constantly checking boxes in my life.
[00:04:48] Okay, graduate from college, check. Get a master's degree, check. Get a job, check. Get back. Go back to school. Find a doctoral program, check. Get into a doctoral program, check. [00:05:00] Find the right partner to check, get married, checked, so constantly checking boxes. So then, so for me, the next box to check was being a parent.
[00:05:08] Now my mother. Now I always wanted children and I know people and women and men, everyone comes to their own kind of experience of whether they wanna have children or not. I have friends who. Didn't wanna have children, then changed their minds and decided they, they wanted to have children. And all of those things are fair and real.
[00:05:32] But I was a person who always wanted to have kids, and I was always like that since I was young. Now, do I know why? I can't say why. I'm a very nurturing person by nature. Grew up with a big family and my youngest brother and I are like, are 12 years apart. And so I did take care of him a lot and I loved every minute of it, so I was one of those people.
[00:05:57] But with that said, I was just very [00:06:00] conscious of really trying to ensure that other things in my life were taken care of as much as possible before I became a. Just with the understanding and again, the limited understanding of knowing that kind of, once you have kids, so many things change. And again, that's a limited experience, but that was my drive with wanting to.
[00:06:26] Finish all my education as soon as I could so that I wouldn't have to juggle going to school, working and having kids. And so that was really for me, my personal drive. And there's part of me that I think is a little bit controlling as well. I can honestly say that, but I've had to work on tempering that a lot, especially since I've had children and now being a mom of three because there's.
[00:06:50] A lot of things that I don't have control over , like my house always being messy. I'm sure you all can relate. Okay, I'm getting off track. So let's go back. So yeah, I was in I my [00:07:00] last year, my doctoral program, and I remember saying to my husband, yeah, let's try to start having kids now. And a very dear friend of ours had passed away and she was so young.
[00:07:13] and she had two beautiful kids that I know were under five. And I think, I know for me, that made me really reflect on life in that life is short and you don't know how much time you have in the world and that controlling everything or trying to control everything, life is not in our, always in our control.
[00:07:32] And that really had a personal impact on me at that point to say, you know what, let's just try, let's work on being parents because. We don't know how much time we have in the world. And so after that it was like a, definitely a shift, like a shift change mentally and emotionally for me. And my husband was very supportive.
[00:07:53] He was like, okay, we can start trying. And then we did start trying from then. And then it was like a definitely a [00:08:00] year of just unprotected intercourse and not getting pregnant. And, and at that point, oh gosh, how old was I? Maybe. 31. Yeah, definitely. I was 31 at the time and he was 30, so we, so after a year of not getting pregnant, then I went to talk to my OB, G Y N, and she said, since you all haven't been able to get pregnant and it's been a year, she said, you all definitely at this point should.
[00:08:32] Fertility, a fertility center, and she highly suggested that we go to Penn. So we did go to Penn Fertility Center and in retrospect, we had an amazing experience and I know a lot of people with people that have talked to in, in doing this work. People who have. Share with me that they have had very experiences at [00:09:00] their fertility centers.
[00:09:02] And so that's another reason why it's important for me to do this work because there's a need for increased knowledge about making sure you do as much homework as possible to finding. The best fertility center, if you feel you're not being treated the way that you are, knowing that you don't have to stay and you can try to find somewhere else.
[00:09:25] And yeah, and so we were very lucky that we were referred to Penn Fertility and. It was an amazing team and our doctor was Dr. Samantha Butts. And Dr. Samantha Butts is, she's a black woman. She went to Harvard. She's a triplet, and so we are very fortunate to have her as our doctor. And I remember one of our first experiences was that you have to fill one, you have to fill out a lot of paperwork, answer a lot of questions, and.
[00:09:59] You have to [00:10:00] do a lot of testing, especially for the woman if you are in a, if you're in a heterosexual relationship. And so for me it was, yeah, I had to do blood. I had to give blood. I had to do an H S G exam, which. They put blood, not blood, they put dye in your, basically in your uterus so they can see if there's any blockage in your fibroids.
[00:10:27] That was, I still remember the pain from that procedure and they said, Yeah, it might be a little painful. No, it was extremely painful and I went by myself and I really shouldn't have went by myself. My husband definitely should've went with me to drive me home, and it was just, I remember in that moment with laying down flat on this table and the dye being inserted and me basically saying to myself, That, okay, you're doing this to be a mom.
[00:10:59] [00:11:00] You can do this. You got it. This is par for the course, and just go somewhere else. Men, mentally, in that little amount of time, that was still very painful. So I remember that so well, and so I think it's just Im important for people. To know that there are diagnostic tests that you have to do so that your doctor, if they're doing their due diligence, this is how they're going to come to an assessment of what your fertility issues are.
[00:11:27] As a couple, I've talked to. Lots of my clients and also guests that have been on my show. And there are a lot of women who have not gone through these diagnostic baseline tests to get an appropriate fertility diagnosis. So again, there's a lot of misunderstanding. There's a lot of knowledge that is not passed down.
[00:11:50] And so again, this is why it's very important for me to share my story. Have other people share their stories, continuing to [00:12:00] give as much education as possible on what all the steps are. So essentially after those tests were done, we had Dr. Butts, we had another conversation with her. So she told us that from my, from all the testing that they did and all talking to us and getting information on us and that we essentially.
[00:12:22] We're in a category called unexplained infertility, and that's when there's not a real reason why you are infertile. So in our situation, she gave us kind of two options as a result of that, and I really appreciated that we were given options and that it was a collaborative process on the options that she presented at the time that she said we could either do.
[00:12:52] Just I u I. So just so everyone knows, I u I is intrauterine insemination where they take [00:13:00] sperm from your partner and put it into the woman when she's ovulating. And that can be done on its own and it can be done with medication. And so in our situation, she presented just doing I u I. or doing IUI with Clomid.
[00:13:23] And Clomid is a medic, is a very popular medication that's used to treat infertility and it basically causes the pituitary gland to release hormones, to stimulate ovulation, and so makes the woman ovulate more eggs. And so, What we ended up doing was, and I'm pretty sure this is what happened, we said, okay, let's do kind of IUI first and see if that works.
[00:13:50] And then if that doesn't work, then we'll come back and, and consider me taking Clement cuz it would be me taking it. And so that one month [00:14:00] we did the iui, I had to take tests like a pregnancy test, but it's a ovulation test that it tells you. When you're ovulating. And then, so anytime that I was ovulating, I had to call the fertility center and then they would say, okay, come in to get inseminated.
[00:14:19] And then my husband would have to give a sperm sample. So that first month it didn't work and. So Dr. Butts said to us, okay, so this didn't work. So do you want to do this again? Do you want to try something else? And I know for a fact I was already beyond frustrated at this point because this is probably, I wanna say at least, probably a year and a half at this point, closer to two years of not being.
[00:14:48] Yeah, I was out of patience at that point, to be honest. And so I said, let's just up the game right now. And I said, I'll take Clomid and we'll do the Clomid with the IUI with [00:15:00] insemination. So Dr. Bus said, okay, so just so you all are aware, Clomid has a lot of side effects, not goods. I've not good ones. And so the side effects that I experienced were, I had horrible.
[00:15:15] Migraines. Probably the worst migraines I've ever had in my life. And I'm a person who has migraines, unfortunately. Worst migraines I've ever had. Worst I ha. Worst yeast infection I've ever had, and I've had a lot. And it just made me emotionally erratic. Now what does that mean? So for those of you who don't know, because you may not know , but you will know, you keep listening to the show, I am.
[00:15:43] A very emotional person. I am a person. If I watch movies, I cry commercial. That's me. And I cry for good reasons too. So me being emotional is not out of the norm. But the reasons that it was out of the norm for me was because [00:16:00] it made me very erratic at work. And I remember just crying at work meetings, which I ne never do.
[00:16:08] Like unless there's like a family. Death or something like that, you will not ever see me crying at work. So I was crying at work. I was out to lunch with my sister friends. And so shout out to all my, uh, chocolate docs crew, Dr. Brawner, Dr. Stevens, Dr. Go, Dr. Stewart and I'm, we went out to eat and we were at a, I think a Vietnamese restaurant, and I just started crying for no reason and.
[00:16:40] My friend said, why? What's going on? Like, why are you crying? Like we just eating. And I said, I'm crying because I said, I'm in mal trying to get pregnant and we can't get pregnant. And then I just broke down and my friend. Dr. Gom said to me and I said to them, I'm [00:17:00] on Clomid and it's making me feel crazy.
[00:17:02] And my friend, Dr. Gom said, my husband and I went through the same thing, so I know exactly how you feel. And I was like, what? So she was the first person who I knew. in real life who also went, one went through infertility, and two who shared that thing, went through infertility. Up until that point, there wasn't anyone who could relate to my experience or our experience, so it was also very lonely.
[00:17:32] It was very isolating, and I'm sure a lot of people can relate to that. I talk to my clients. About that, about the isolation and deciding, making decisions with your partner about who are you comfortable with, sharing that you're infertile, who are you not comfortable with sharing? What could happen if you tell this person that you're infertile and just playing those things out just to [00:18:00] be just prepared for if maybe someone finds out that you didn't wanna know.
[00:18:04] And identifying people. In your life who will be supportive and understanding and non-judgmental, which I think when, I think, which I know from our experience with trying to get pregnant and, and with a lot of sisters and brothers who I've had the benefit of talking to that in our community, in the black c.
[00:18:29] Infertility is still seen as a, it's still very stigmatized. People don't understand how, if you're black, you are having problems with having a baby, and so it can be. . Yeah. Very isolating, very lonely. And there might be only a couple of people who you might feel comfortable with telling, and you just have to sit with that for an unknown amount of time because you don't know how long it's gonna take for you to successfully [00:19:00] get pregnant.
[00:19:01] And so it is C, it can be just such a. Long, hard, emotionally exhaustive experience. And it is, there's no way to sugarcoat it. It just is. And I think there at, for us, there were only a handful of people that we, we told we didn't, yeah, we didn't tell a lot of people again, because we didn't have any friends until my friend Dr.
[00:19:25] Gomes told me about her. So yeah, so we just kept to ourselves and fortunately we were in therapy at the time. Which helped tremendously. I don't know where we would be now if we hadn't been in therapy at that time, because there's a lot of blaming that occurs and finger pointing and angst, and I know for me it just wasn't happening fast enough.
[00:19:58] and as a woman, [00:20:00] it just made me feel likes, it made me feel as if something was wrong with me because I wasn't able to get pregnant and in the middle of while we are trying to have a baby over a two year period, you know, we have. At that time, cause yeah, that's the time in your thirties, late 2030s, a lot of your friends or family members are having babies or have babies and children and you are not.
[00:20:25] And I remember, oh yeah, it was when my, we were, we took a summer vacation. Yeah, we did a summer vacation to the shore with my nieces who are old now, six, 16, and 14. But they were, oh my god, what were they, five and three maybe at the time. And it was the same. Summer that I was taking the Clomid and just feeling all just out of sorts in every kind of way.
[00:20:50] And they asked me and they said, auntie Jill, you're not, you're not a mommy yet. and I, no, I broke down crying. So they're were [00:21:00] a lot of things that happened like that all the time. Yeah. So I was constantly, Triggered a lot. I'm sure people can relate to that experience. And so it's, this is something I talk to my clients about regarding preparing themselves to be around children, babies of family members, and their friends, and that if you don't wanna go to a birthday party or a baby shower, At that time when you're trying to have a baby, there is nothing wrong with that.
[00:21:35] And so I got to the point I decided there was only gonna be a very small amount of. Kids parties that I was gonna go to, baby showers, it wasn't in my best interest for my own wellbeing to be around other kids and babies. If I could prevent them, prevent it at that point. [00:22:00] And so I think people on the other side of that need to understand that you may not know what your friends are going through and.
[00:22:11] I know that a lot of times when you get together with your friends, and maybe you haven't been with your friends in a long time, and you might have friends who don't have kids yet, and they may be in a relationship and you might think it's cool to ask them, oh, when you guys having kids, are you planning on having kids?
[00:22:31] And I want to really urge you. To not ask people that question because you don't know what people are going through. You don't know if you could be triggering someone, because more likely than not, you have some friends who are going through infertility and they do not feel comfortable in sharing it. So really think about if you're in this situation, is it in your best interest to ask that question?
[00:22:57] Why is that question important? Because it [00:23:00] really could cause more harm. Then good. So I just want to say that we got asked that question a lot. It did not feel good to be asked that question when you know you are basically not in control over whether you're having a baby or not. And it's not that you don't wanna have a baby, it's the baby is not coming right now.
[00:23:19] The baby, a baby's not coming because you want it to come. And so from there, when it ended up happening, so I think I did three months, we did three months of II on Clomid. Yeah, July, August, September, and then in September it was our wedding anniversary, which is on September 17th. So I remember that I took my
[00:23:44] So yeah, at that point, because you have to be prepared to be inseminated. As soon as you, your ovulation test, tells you, shows you that you're ovulating, you have to be ready to get to the fertility [00:24:00] clinic. So fortunately for me, I was working at Penn at the time, so it was a. One block walk from my office.
[00:24:08] I remember, yeah. I had my ovulation test kits in my backpack because I had to keep them on me. I remember , oh gosh, I almost forgot this. A year before that, what was it? Two, 2009? Yeah, we went to Costa Rica. This was before we started fertility treatments, and I. Tracking my patient, which is taking ovulation tests kit.
[00:24:36] and just making sure that we tried to make sure we had intercourse. So I took a whole maybe 10 pack of ovulation test kits with us to Costa Rica. I didn't tell my husband that. I didn't tell him that they were in our suitcase. So did our bag get, I don't remember if our bag got pulled over or not. Out of the thing in Costa Rica.
[00:24:56] I don't know. I don't think so. But at that point I really [00:25:00] didn't. I really didn't care because. The desperation to have a baby will make you do things that normally maybe you wouldn't do. And I'm like, we're trying to have a baby. I don't care. This is gonna help us , figure out whether I'm ovulating or not.
[00:25:15] My husband was very surprised. When I think we got to the hotel room and I pulled out the test kits. He was like, are you serious? And I was like, yeah, I'm serious. Cause we're trying to have a baby. But they didn't, they didn't work and we didn't get pregnant in Costa Rica. I was like, that would've been a cool story.
[00:25:34] But it didn't happen that way. I can laugh now, but it, it wasn't funny, but it was funny. But it really is the, the desperation. You wanna have a baby and you will do anything, even potentially embarrass yourself to all extents that are possible if, you know, these ovulation test kits are taken outta your bag at a, at an airport.
[00:25:56] So, so September 17th, 2010, [00:26:00] our wedding anniversary. Yeah, it was a Friday. I, yeah, I have my ovulation chest case with me. Took one in the bathroom of Starbucks and then . It was like it turned blue, which means you're ovulating. So I called the clinic and said, I'm ovulating. They were like, all right, Mrs.
[00:26:16] Baker come coming in, inseminated. And I remember before I went, I talked to my friend Robins. So shout out to my friend, Dr. Robin, and I said to her, Robin, I. I don't know, if I have this in me to keep going. And I said to her like, this doesn't work. I said, I can't do I, I can't do ivf. So IVF would've been, for those of you who don't know, IVF is in vitro fertilization.
[00:26:41] So if the Clomid and the insemination didn't work, then the next step would've for us would've been ivf. And I said to my friend, Robin, I said, I can't do ivf. I said, So afraid of needles. I couldn't even imagine having to do that. And my friend Robin said to me, well, maybe you don't, [00:27:00] maybe today is the day you will get pregnant.
[00:27:02] And I said, why would that? I said, it hasn't happened in over two years, so why, why would it happen? And she was just like, just have some faith and let's, let's see what happens. So I was like, okay. So then I went down the block and went and got inseminated. And then, then you have to. There's so much waiting.
[00:27:19] There's always so much waiting. I couldn't even tell you how many pregnancy tests that I took that were all negative. And by that point, you just have a lifetime supply of pregnancy tests because it's part of the process. And so two weeks passed, 10 day, and I didn't get my period, so I said, all right, so it's time to take pregnancy tests.
[00:27:44] It's just so hard because. You always have that little bit of hope, but then you're like, but then there's a potential that you may not be pregnant. So I took the pregnancy test, actually, yeah, it was on. Oh yeah, it was on, yeah, it was [00:28:00] on Gamal's birthday. It was October 1st. Yeah. Duh. Yes, it was on Gamal's birthday, my husband's birthday.
[00:28:05] And then the test, yeah, was POS was positive. And I remember taking the test and bringing it downstairs to him and I said, oh, we're happy birthday, we're pregnant. And then his response was, okay, that's good, but. Get a blood test first and just make sure for sure that you're pregnant. That's just his typical Libra personality, but also just being mindful of how many times we've been disappointed in this two year plus journey.
[00:28:38] And so I said, okay, so then I called and the clinic and they said, all right Mr. Baker, come in tomorrow, get your blood taken and we'll see what's going on with the pregnancy. Okay. So I went. And got my blood taken. And you all have to know, I hate giving blood. I hate having my blood taken. Oh, they took my blood and um, They [00:29:00] were like, okay, we'll call, well, if you don't hear from us today with the results, we'll call you tomorrow.
[00:29:06] Okay, cool. So then , they called me. They called a few hours later and they said to, and they said to us, well, Mr. Baker, You all are definitely pregnant and based on the, your hormone level, it's either twins or triplets. So then I, so I said to, well, I was like, so we are definitely pregnant. It's either, I said, are you ready for this?
[00:29:33] It's either twins or triplets.
[00:29:39] So he was shocked. Like we both were shocked, and I just remember bawling crying. So then the nurse said to us, let's make an appointment for you to come in and do your first ultrasound so we can see for sure how many babies it is. So literally four days. Yeah, four days later. [00:30:00] We had our first ultrasound with Dr.
[00:30:02] Butts and Dr. Butts did the ultrasound, and then she said, okay. She said, there's two, two babies here. It's not three. And all was just very quiet. And Dr. Butts said, she was like, oh. Are you all right Mr. Baker? I've never seen you. It was quiet before and then I started, I started bawling, crying because I told you all I'm a crier.
[00:30:25] Um, and that was just crying out of just pure joy, just joy and happiness. In the end, they were literally, um, Two dots. I'm gonna make a picture of their, their ultrasound, their first ultrasound. Cause they were lit literally two dots, so I still called them my dots. Yeah, Gavin and Gemma. And that was the beginning of a
[00:30:49] Very long. And then arduous pregnancy experience, which I'll talk about in another episode. But there's no other the story and [00:31:00] how. They came into being and how they came into our lives and picked us because I, I'm a Buddhist and our practice believes that your children pick you. And so yeah, they, them deciding that we were gonna be their parents and coming into the, into the world this way of us getting pregnant on our anniversary and then being able to, Yeah, tell my husband on his birthday that I was pregnant and then just having two and then seeing two, and it was, yeah, just such an beautiful experience and after kind of everything that we went through, yeah, I can definitely say that it was worth it.
[00:31:50] I wouldn't, I wouldn't change anything about the experience. I think the only thing that I would change is, We probably should have [00:32:00] started having children sooner, but I wouldn't change the experience. It made me a stronger person, and I'm a person who I've been through a lot in my personal life already.
[00:32:15] It just made me are stronger person, more resilient. It made my relationship with my husband stronger because. We were able to get through that experience and come out on the other side and still be together and still thrive. And we've been able to help other people going through similar situations and, and it sparked, no, not, it did, it sparked a fuse for me.
[00:32:51] That in realizing when I just started telling our story more, that I'm like, there are so many more people who are going through the same experience and not saying anything, [00:33:00] and more and more my, my friends and my circle. , and I'm like, why are we not talking to each other? Why aren't we not being each other's support?
[00:33:10] Why are we not sharing information? Because there's a definite difference in the, in an infertility journey of a black or brown couple as opposed to a white couple. And not saying that there are not some similarities because, because there are like the things that you have to go through to find out if you're pregnant.
[00:33:31] Your options may be different, but we're. Typically treated the same. We don't typically have all the knowledge of what's supposed to happen. When we go to a fertility doctor, what options are they supposed to present us? Finances are also a problem and limited for couples of color as well. Now, fortunately for us, Gamal's Insurance at the time was excellent and covered [00:34:00] almost, I believe, all of our infertility treatment.
[00:34:04] So it's very important that if you know you wanna have a child and you haven't yet, you may wanna check. Make sure you check your insurance, check your partner's insurance, what benefits are there for infertility? What benefits are there for adoption, if that's something that you have to do. I don't think people always think about those things and that's understandable, but it's al it.
[00:34:30] There's nothing wrong in checking for it, just in case situation because it's very important because I've spoken to so many couples who. Weren't able to go through infertility because they just could not afford it. Or they couldn't take out a loan. Or they didn't get a loan. So this is a reality for couples of color.
[00:34:54] It's just the resources are not the same for us. And so and so, these are [00:35:00] the reasons why I work is very important to me. Why I decided to become a fertility coach, because I would have loved to have had a fertility coach and someone to. Support me and walk me through the process so that I was just more knowledgeable and more aware and to help me and also to be an advocate and also, If I'm just wanna cry because it's not going the way that I'm was hoping it would go, or I had a bad day because the treatments were painful and all those things occur and are real.
[00:35:39] I wish I would've had a fertility coach. And so that's why for me, it's been important for me to. Do this and provide this service, and I take it very seriously and also through my show and through all the work that I do in talking [00:36:00] to organizations and companies and schools about infertility and maternal health disparities and that there's just more attention that needs to go in these areas, period.
[00:36:13] So, This is just the beginning. I hope you all will be with me on this ride for this show, maternal Health 9 1 1. Um, And, and yeah. I also want to take the moment to just say thank you to everyone who in my hiatus from a tribe called Fertility and not really being sure if I was going to continue this work or not in this medium and having a podcast, but I had one.
[00:36:47] My family was super supportive. Said, mom, mom, you need, my kids are like, mom, what? You need to just have another show you. It's important. So my kids and my husband and my friends and, but all the people [00:37:00] who have reached out to me, Just sent me messages or people that I've just had conversations with, people who have reached out to me after a panel presentation that I've done or a research presentation, people who have reached out to me on social media just who have said, I listened to your show or saw one of your talks and.
[00:37:20] it just helped me so much. Or I shared this information with my friend who's going through infertility. I just wanna say thank you to all of you for sharing that with me and sharing that love with me, and that has meant a lot to me. And so that has all of that real has. Really resulted in me saying and deciding, okay, it's time for a new show and to come right back into the fold.
[00:37:46] So here it is, maternal health 9 1 1. Please follow anywhere you listen to a podcast. And follow me active at Dr. Joe Baker on Instagram, Twitter, and I look [00:38:00] forward to being on this journey with 3, 2, 1. Yeah. Thank you for listening to this episode of Maternal Health 9 1 1. Please follow the show on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
[00:38:13] Feel free to DM me with your questions and thoughts or to share your infertility, fertility, and maternal health story. For more information on this podcast and your host, Visit ww dot dr joe baker.com listening to the show on Apple Podcast. Please rate and review it. It really helps the show and the feedback is welcome.
[00:38:46] You go.
Welcome to Maternal Health 911! In this episode, Dr. Jill Baker shared her entire fertility journey and how it all began, and the reason behind all the work that she is now doing to create awareness and welcoming space to families who are going through the same journey that she went through.
She has successfully had twins who are turning 12 this year at the time of this recording and her little Amari.
But it wasn’t an easy feat. There were tons of tests, Doctor’s appointments, a lot of time spent waiting in the lounge with your nerves shaken and your soul waiting only to be crushed by yet another negative result until finally the babies arrived!
She has graciously shared how this affected her marriage, her mental wellness and her whole life.
Lean in and we hope that you find comfort that there is hope and let Dr. Jill’s story be an inspiration to yours!
Ep.1/
Dr. Jill’s Fertility Story
Learn more about Dr. Jill here.
Have a story to share? Send us an email at maternalheatlth911@gmail.com
Follow Dr. Jill:
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-jillian-baker-61543222/
Instragram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/maternalhealth911/
and
https://www.instagram.com/drjillbaker/
