The Army Mom Life Network Advocating for Change!

LTC Kelly Bell, moderator for The Army Mom Life group was originally in a reserves unit before being mobilized to an active duty unit right before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The only nurse in her command, she became the medical commander for everything COVID-19 related. She specializes in ER nursing. When her unit arrived back from deployment she was asked to be briefed about COVID-19 and they were shocked how things had progressed in the United States. She was then asked to be the OIC of the COVID-19 task force. Board selected for a LTC Battalion Command position by June of this year. 

Kelly has of course learned quite a bit during the pandemic about her career and how things quickly change within the military. Being a Facebook administrator for the group, The Army Mom Life, Kelly works to revise policies and advocate for moms and families in the military.

SGT Nicole Pierce began the group and reached out the Kelly to help mentor and advocate for their members. Since then Kelly decided to learn more about Twitter and see how she could make a difference through that community and push some of the main issues they were seeing through the platform. They got a great response by tagging some top leaders in the Army. The SGT Major of the Army reached out to the group and suggested they submit some proposals they were working on. They put out a survey to see what they would like to see as proposals, with over 300 respondents. They consolidated the responses and came up with the top 5 they wanted to present. It then landed on the desks of some of the senior leaders in the Army as well as some members of the Pentagon. It is important to note that instead of simply making a list of what the group wanted, they presented research, background information and solutions that they wanted to have addressed. The Pregnancy and Postpartum Planning team will be getting together on April 5th at the Pentagon, and will begin working on the proposal and turning the issues into actual policy. 

The main proposals that have been submitted are:

• Postpartum Height weight deferment from 180 days to a full 12 months postpartum 
• Increase postpartum standard of care 
• Standards in allowing Postpartum or pregnant soldiers be sent to PME 
• Joint service effort to revise the joint travel regulations to officially authorize the reimbursement of breast milk transportation 
• Postpartum and parental operation and training deferment policy 

Kelly explains how difficult it is for many female soldiers that are pregnant or postpartum to be sent to training, NTC, or deployments. There are many studies being done to show the effects of mothers and babies being separated too early, and the inconsistencies of policy to ensure the welfare of families. Kelly and the team of The Army Mom Life group are working to make the work/life balance for female soldiers more bearable as they progress in their career. Some of the policies they are looking to revise are not only for females, but also understanding a family looks different sometimes and different is okay. These policies will consistently cover transgender families, single parents, and same gender parents. 

Listen as Kelly shares her experiences as a mom and how she is advocating for female soldiers everywhere in this episode of The Military Woman and So Much More! 

Quotes: 

“We got our voice out on Twitter, and got picked up by Army Senior leaders that started to follow some of the threads we were putting out there, and things just sort of progressed in a really positive way.”

 

“The way that we run the Army Mom life is very soldier centric. So it’s all about the admins advocating for the soldiers in the group and assisting them. So we wanted to capture the needs and wants of the soldiers.” (18:40-18:56)

 

Links: 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thearmymomlife