Missy Peregrym Details ‘Empowering’ Birth of Daughter, 5 Months, and Returning to Work at ‘FBI’

Missy Peregrym is opening up about her deeply fulfilling experience giving birth to her second baby.

Speaking with PEOPLE ahead of her return to FBI, the new mom of two details her experience giving birth to daughter Mela Joséphine at home in June, following the birth of son Otis in the early days of the pandemic in March 2020.

“It was a really big deal, to choose a home birth,” says the actress, who admits she was “nervous about getting pregnant again because of what I had gone through.”

“I just knew that I wanted to have more power at the end of the day. I really wanted to be able to choose what I wanted and be heard and respected for the choices I was making,” she explains, noting she found “a lot of healing in the experience.”

Peregrym, 40, and husband Tom Oakley, 41, had a midwife and a doula at home as part of their birthing experience, which made the “care so different.”

“There was no intervention the second time at all,” she explains. “It still felt like it was a new experience for me because I didn’t have Pitocin and I didn’t know how my body would naturally labor.”

When it came time to welcome Mela, “everybody just came here,” with Peregrym’s labor and delivery experience spanning just three hours.

“To just get into my own bed and Otis was upstairs — he woke up a couple hours later — just for him to come into the bed and meet his sister. Then to have my midwife come back the next week to check on me, I felt very cared for as the mother,” she says.

The actress also praises Oakley for being “right behind me, supporting me as Mela came into the world. It was so quiet and joyful.”

Peregrym notes a lot of women “get ignored in the process of having a baby.”

“Everything’s about the baby. What we go through is… I mean, I don’t even have a word for it, but it’s exceptionally intense and it can be so beautiful,” she continues.

While the experience was beautiful, Peregrym admits she wasn’t immune to the opinions of those who feel home birth is “taboo” and “taking a risk,” but felt reassured in her decision by her sister, who had three home births.

“There was so much room to be present because the baby’s not getting rushed off anywhere, I’m not getting rushed off anywhere,” she adds.

Transitioning to being parents of two also came with getting Peregrym’s 2-year-old to learn to love his baby sister.

“His world got rocked,” the mom of two admits. “We thought, ‘Otis is going to be great.’ We did all of the things like having him talk to her while she was in my womb, telling him we’re having a baby.'”

Noting that Otis is a “very expressive child,” they worked to “find a new rhythm for him, so that he still felt his place in the family even though it was going to be a new dynamic.”

“He’s always been really sweet to Mela. It’s kind of the best thing in the whole world,” she says proudly. “I don’t think there’s any way to have a super easy time with any child, whatever number it is, there’s always an adjustment period time.”

That adjustment period saw the couple divide and conquer, with Oakley getting a hold on Otis while Peregrym tended to Mela. While it wasn’t easy, Peregrym notes, “I couldn’t imagine not having either of them in my life,” sharing it’s even more challenging now that she’s returned to work.

“Your heart is in two places all the time. I’ve never multitasked like this before in my life,” she says.

These days, Mela is joining mom on set at FBI as she breastfeeds, while Otis hasn’t been to the set since he weaned because of the show’s health regulations.

“It felt awesome to be able to share her with the cast and crew,” Peregrym says of her return. “It’s a big deal to add a child to your family and after working with everyone for five years now, it feels really good to be able to share my personal side with everybody.”

Special Agent Maggie Bell’s FBI return airs Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 8:00 EST on CBS.