Motherhood In The Military with Amber Cook

Welcome to another Mental Health and Motherhood Summit speaker video.

Amber Cook

is a military spouse (Navy), mama, yoga teacher, writer, and Registered Nurse. Watch our quick video and say hello by following her or registering for her talk on the summit site!

Transcript For All The Noise Sensitive Moms Like Me:

Chanel Riggle (00:00)

Hello everybody, my name is Chanel Riggle I am the founder and organizer of the Mental Health and Motherhood Summit events. I'm super excited. Today we're doing another meet and greet with one of our 24 speakers for this year's summit. And today I have Amber Cook here and she's going to introduce herself a little bit about what she's going to talk about on October 10th through 11th. This is a two day virtual event and tickets are on sale now.

So please ⁓ attend so that you can see all the other speakers. But Amber, thank you so much for copying on real quick. I'd love if you could give a little bit of background about who you are.

Amber Cook (00:40)

Yeah, so as Chanel said, my name's Amber. I'm a military spouse of six years, military adjacent for eight. It's my husband's phrasing for when we were dating. ⁓ We have lived in Florida, Japan, and now San Diego. I have two boys, two and almost four, and I am pregnant with our third and final child, a little girl.

And I chose to submit to give this talk because maternal mental health is something near and dear to my heart after my time moving overseas as a brand new mom. My son was nine months old when we moved to a foreign country. So that is why I am here and wanting to support Chanel and the Motherhood and Mental Health Summit.

Chanel Riggle (01:34)

And Amber, you are also a nurse, correct?

Amber Cook (01:37)

Yes, yes, I have my bachelor's degree of science in nursing. I've worked in emergency medicine and family medicine with the base clinic in Florida.

Chanel Riggle (01:47)

Great, so you're gonna be speaking on motherhood in the military. What is something that you really want to communicate with anybody who attends a summit and watches your talk?

Amber Cook (02:01)

I think I hope most to reach other military mothers so that they know they are not alone.

But also for those who don't have any military association, I hope that by sharing my story and how I navigate motherhood in the military, it makes it more acceptable to do things like pay for childcare so you can get a pedicure or go to appointments or go to Costco by yourself.

Because that's something that I have found makes a huge difference in my mental health as a mother, as well as not being afraid to seek the help that we need when we need it.

Chanel Riggle (02:45)

I think one of the really beautiful things that I've seen, especially since the pandemic in 2020, is it seems like that was really a open door for mothers to be more outspoken about like, this is challenging. And not only is motherhood challenging, this is like my unique challenge that I'm going through and I'm gonna start talking about it more. Just like we were talking earlier about.

What is motherhood like when you are in the military? In that lifestyle is such a unique challenge, but you're definitely not alone and I encourage people who aren't in the military or, like you said military adjacent, to still watch Ambers talk because it's super common for moms to be the primary caretaker or to have a spouse that has to travel for work or has really challenging scheduling.

Like my husband is working like 5.30 PM to 5.30 AM right now. And so that's been a huge challenge for not just myself, but for my daughter, who's a huge daddy's girl. explaining, you know, that I'm going to have to be good enough for her for the day.

Chanel Riggle (04:10)

Is there anything else you would like to say before we wrap up Amber about the summit and what you're excited about speaking on?

Amber Cook (04:18)

I think I'm just, most excited for the opportunity to get to reach people who I wouldn't otherwise reach and sharing my story, but also some practical tools and tips for how to navigate the messiness of motherhood.

Chanel Riggle (04:35)

You are not the first mom that I have interviewed who brings up the messiness of motherhood. And you're not going to be able the last. I love that. Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope that everyone who is interested in feeling supported in a really compassionate way can join us for the summit. Like I said, you can join October 10th and 11th.

We're going to have 24 speakers, not including myself, and we're going to be talking about a variety of topics, those unique challenges in motherhood, as well as super common challenges that we all face. So thank you so much, Amber, and I look forward to hearing your talk.

Amber Cook (05:24)

Thank you.

If you’d like to hear more from Amber and our other speakers on the topic of maternal mental health, please subscribe for updates and more conversations!

Please also share this with mothers you know so they can access mental health resources at the summit. Tickets start at $25