You think you have stability. You think you have your health. You think you have all these things. But in reality, they can be taken from you at any moment without warning — Jennifer Peterson

There's a version of strength that looks like showing up for everyone else while quietly falling apart underneath it. Jennifer Peterson spent 25 years in critical care and trauma medicine — and then found herself on the other side of the emergency, bleeding out after a routine surgery, unsure she'd make it home to her own kids.

In this episode, Jennifer shares the honest, unscripted story of that near-fatal medical crisis, the EMDR work that helped her carry it, and the burnout that finally pushed her to leave inpatient medicine. She opens up about why she pivoted into perimenopause and menopause care, and why so many women are dismissed, misdiagnosed, or handed antidepressants when what they actually need is real hormone support and someone willing to listen.

If you've ever felt unheard by a doctor or like you had to fight for basic answers about your own body, this is a real life story about women's health, self-advocacy, and finding your people. New episodes every Thursday on all major podcast platforms.

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Timestamps
00:00 — Introduction — Heather welcomes Jennifer Peterson
03:12 — 25 years in critical care — how she got into medicine
09:41 — The 2017 surgery that nearly took her life
12:59 — EMDR and processing medical trauma
15:16 — Burnout, leaving inpatient medicine, and finding her real calling
19:01 — Why women are dismissed in perimenopause and menopause care
47:03 — Where to connect with Jennifer Peterson

About Jennifer Peterson

Jennifer Peterson is a Board-Certified Acute Care Nurse Practitioner with more than 25 years of clinical experience. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Delaware in 2003 and her Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania in 2007, and spent the bulk of her career specializing in Critical Care Medicine and Transplant Hepatology. Now based in Rohnert Park, California, Jennifer draws on that deep clinical background to offer highly personalized care in perimenopause and menopause, medical weight management, and platelet-rich plasma therapy — blending evidence-based medicine with a more holistic, individualized approach to women's health.

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"Our brains are wired for survival. They are not wired for success." — Gina Mundy

There's a specific kind of courage it takes to walk out of your own life with nothing but a suitcase and $50 in your pocket. For Gina Mundy, that night came the day after Christmas, after 24 years of marriage, after she'd quietly stopped caring about the version of her life that looked perfect from the outside.

Gina is a childbirth attorney with over 23 years of experience investigating what goes wrong in labor and delivery, and bestselling author of A Parent's Guide to a Safer Childbirth. In this real life story about women navigating change, we talk about pitocin, doulas, and the racial disparities in birth outcomes she's still trying to understand — and then we talk about the night she left her marriage, and the brain science behind why staying somewhere unsafe can feel safer than leaving.

This is an honest conversation about advocacy, identity, and starting over more than once in the same year. If you've ever felt your brain talk you out of a decision your heart had already made, listen in. New episodes every Thursday on all major podcast platforms.

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Timestamps
00:00 — Introduction — Heather welcomes Gina Mundy
03:15 — How Gina became a birth injury attorney by accident
12:00 — The realities of pitocin, induction, and advocating for yourself in labor
29:01 — The unanswered question about race and birth complications
36:03 — The night she left her marriage with $50 in her pocket
44:32 — Brains wired for survival, not success — and starting over twice in one year
48:08 — Where to connect with Gina Mundy

About Gina Mundy

Gina Mundy is a childbirth attorney, bestselling author, speaker, podcaster, and mother of three based in the Detroit, Michigan area. For over 23 years she's specialized in childbirth cases and birth trauma litigation — traveling the country, analyzing medical records, and cross-examining the nation's top experts to understand why the most joyful day of a family's life sometimes goes wrong. She's the bestselling author of A Parent's Guide to a Safer Childbirth, founder of the Safer Childbirth Community, and host of The Childbirth Attorney Podcast. She recently became a grandmother for the first time.

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Book: A Parent's Guide to a Safer Childbirth: Expecting the Best by child-birth

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