The neli Podcast

Lisa was adopted as an infant from South Korea and raised in Hammond, IN. She found her way to Fort Wayne for college where she met her now husband. They made their way around the Midwest from Chicago to Cincinnati while pursuing their professional dreams and then back to Fort Wayne where she now works as a Neonatologist.

They have two boys, ages 3 and 5 that keep them busy! When she's not working or running around, she's usually working out. Accountability is on another level when your husband opens a gym, Plus Ultra Fitness, in the middle of a pandemic. The gym is her outlet…the place she gets to hang with friends, strengthen her mind and body, and show her kids how to build healthy habits.

In this episode, Lisa shares her experiences with births not going quite as planned, how being a Neonatologist impacted her pregnancy and delivery experience, and how she approaches staying healthy.

Today's guest is neli's Co-Founder and CEO, Brittany King. In this episode, Brittay shares her experience with an unexpected pregnancy, navigating the transition to motherhood as a young woman whose plans included anything but a baby. 

She discusses growing up in conservative evangelical settings, the impact it had on her views of sex and relationships, and navigating pregnancy with an abusive partner. 

She shares her struggles with mental health postpartum, and how it all turned out beautiful in the end. 

TW:

• Unplanned pregnancy
• Depression and anxiety
• Suicide
• Emotional abuse
• Church trauma

In this episode we sat down with Shannon Jackson, mom of two, to discuss her experiences with pregnancy and postpartum. Shannon shares what her experience was like with preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, postpartum anxiety, and coping with a newborn in the NICU. She also shares how her family has processed her son's Autism diagnosis, and what she hopes moms can learn from her story. 

 

Shannon had us inspired, laughing, in tears, and ultimately left us full of wonder at how amazing moms really are. We hope you enjoy this chat as much as we did. <3 

Amy Unger was a full spectrum (family planning, birth, loss, postpartum) doula for several years, and trained as a midwifery assistant and lactation consultant before becoming a school psychology specialist. She's a child psychologist trained in educational neuropsychology—currently working as a school psychologist doing special education evaluations in Indiana. She also has a clinical research background dealing with health psychology and bioethics.

In this episode, she shares her perspective on all things pregnancy and postpartum—from being neurodivergent and navigating health issues, advocating for herself, and raising neurodivergent children. She shares her story with an openness and honestly that invites others to do the same. We loved holding space for Amy, and we found so many parts of her story that resonate with us all. 

Can't wait for you to listen. 

Audrey Andersen is "mom" to four kids ages 10-17. They're each involved in travel sports and she spends a lot of her time carting them around the midwest. She is the owner and operator of King's Fitness and Nutrition, LLC —helping women achieve lasting weight loss and say goodbye to the yo-yo dieting rollercoaster. Audrey loves being outside, hiking, walking, and laying by the pool. When she has a free moment to spare, you can find her with a book, expanding her knowledge of the body-mind connection or at a local restaurant enjoying her family and friends. 

We originally asked Audrey on the show to talk about sustainable weight loss, nutrition, and overall health. In addition to her expansive knowledge about all things healthy, we were blown away by her passion for helping women love themselves, and inspired to take a look at our own lives and habits—including the negative self-talk that plays on a loop in our heads. Audrey is truly one of the most inspiring people we know. Being around her is a joy—she fills you up and motivates you find strength you didn't know you had.

Don't miss this episode.

 

Jasmine Bennett is the Owner/Founder of rel Eve co.—an organization dedicated to sourcing and providing the best, clean + sustainable period-care essentials and menstrual health specialty goods so menstrators can treat themselves to a more enjoyable period.    We had the honor of connecting with Jasmine to talk about her startup, how she's balancing being the founder of a business with a mom (who homeschools!) and what it really means to honor your body during your period.

On Today’s episode, we chat with Baili. Baili is a mom and military wife currently living in North Carolina. She’s a Customer Success Manager for a tech company, and when she’s not working, you can find her at the beach looking for shark teeth. She has 3 kids who are 15, 13, and 2. 

 

Baili tackles challenges with grit and grace, and lives by an incredible set of values that she instills in her Kids. She shares the three very different experiences she had with pregnancy and postpartum—from her husband leaving 2 weeks after their child was born, coping with postpartum depression to giving birth in a navy hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic and raising teenagers. You don’t want to miss this episode.

In this episode, Brianna (Glenn) Bonilla shares her story. Throughout our time together, Brianna again and again demonstrated the strength and resilience that's inside all of us as mothers. She gets real with her take on being raised by a single mom, the fears we all share during pregnancy, battling postpartum depression, and the emotional toll of her pregnancy weight gain and postpartum body.

 

You don't want to miss this episode.

Katie and Brittany, Co-Founders of neli, share the organization's history, mission, and vision.

Interested in joining us? Email [email protected]

 

Take the fourth trimester survey: https://www.nelicommunity.com/survey

 

Explore early survey results: https://www.nelicommunity.com/blog/postpartum-experience-survey