Birthworker Burnout: Reclaim Your Passion
Discover your options, get clear on your future and start to love your work again
A 6-week program with Kelly Silk and Leisa Masters
A 6-week program with Kelly Silk and Leisa Masters
A compassionate, inspiring and supportive space for your healing and growth, packed with practical help and understanding, so you can find your freedom and reclaim your passion.
This course is right for you if:
- You've been working in the maternity system, and you feel beyond exhausted
- You love helping birthing women, but you're stressed, overwhelmed and feel like you're running on empty
- You see so many women traumatised and it's breaking you
- You envisioned doing this job for a long time but now you're questioning that
- You've considered exploring other work options, but it feels daunting, and you don't know what that could look like
This course is designed to nurture you as you contemplate your work in the maternity system. Our empathetic space will provide a clearer vision of why your work matters, and why you’re meant for this path. Finding your joy again will ripple out to every woman and family you serve; they’ll be able to feel your balanced presence, and how much space you have, cultivated and restored from a place of being deeply resourced and having a ‘full cup’.
Meet Leisa ...
Leisa Masters is a mother, accomplished birthworker and experienced business manager. She has been supporting women in pregnancy, birth and motherhood for almost fifteen years. Leisa transformed her birth business from working in-person in the maternity system, to become a global online coach and mentor to other birthworkers.
As a sought-after voice in the worldwide birth community, Leisa now helps other birthworkers recognise how to work with women in a truly life-changing way. She believes women already have all their own wisdom inside of them, and her job is to help them find the confidence to uncover and believe in it.
Leisa also hosts a popular podcast showcasing the transformative, real-life experiences of her clients. She lives in the warm tropical north of Australia along with her vivacious teenage daughter.
Meet Kelly ...
Kelly Silk is an experienced former NHS midwife of over fifteen years. She supported women in hospital and birth centre settings, as well as at homebirths and was an integral part of an independent midwifery group.
Kelly has now stepped out of her work in the maternity system. Her clear and compassionate approach, developed over more than a decade of witnessing trauma and her own subsequent burnout recovery, allows the women and birthworkers she now serves to move through their challenges with deep understanding and insight. Kelly has been able to cultivate the support she wishes she'd had available during her years as a midwife.
Kelly lives in the idyllic Cotswold region of the UK with her two loveably cantankerous cats. She loves a good coffee, a chilly lake swim, and a decent true crime podcast.
For more than a decade, Kelly and Leisa, as midwife and doula respectively, worked serving women in the maternity system. We both entered this work believing we could be the change. We believed our work would positively impact women's births, creating better outcomes for mothers and babies. And while this was sometimes true, more often than not, what we witnessed was powerlessness and trauma. Over time we both became burnt out attempting to save women and change the system. We both tried countless different ways of trying to keep going, until we realised the only way to get through was to choose something different for ourselves.
Since that time we have gone on to build businesses that align with our with-woman values. Our businesses are authentic extensions of ourselves and our lives, creating freedom to love what we do.
Deciding what steps to take to reclaim our passion and love your work again can be a complex process. It can feel scary, like you don't know where to start. It can feel overwhelming. It may be lonely when those around you don't understand.
We want you to envision a life where your work is your joy. You began this work because you want to help women in a rewarding and meaningful way, and this is still totally possible for you. Together we will tap into opportunities for healing, explore ways to move forward sustainably, and discover your very own unique ability to serve women and thrive.
We know contemplating big changes is not easy, and we meet you where YOU are, and will help you develop a strategy that ignites you and your passions, no matter how or where you serve women in this moment.
Since that time we have gone on to build businesses that align with our with-woman values. Our businesses are authentic extensions of ourselves and our lives, creating freedom to love what we do.
Deciding what steps to take to reclaim our passion and love your work again can be a complex process. It can feel scary, like you don't know where to start. It can feel overwhelming. It may be lonely when those around you don't understand.
We want you to envision a life where your work is your joy. You began this work because you want to help women in a rewarding and meaningful way, and this is still totally possible for you. Together we will tap into opportunities for healing, explore ways to move forward sustainably, and discover your very own unique ability to serve women and thrive.
We know contemplating big changes is not easy, and we meet you where YOU are, and will help you develop a strategy that ignites you and your passions, no matter how or where you serve women in this moment.
What’s in Birthworker Burnout: Reclaim Your Passion?
Module 1 - What's stopping you moving forward? – Even though many birthworkers find it intolerable to stay working within the industrialised maternity system, it can feel difficult to decide what to do. In this session you will discover what is holding you back, what you really want, and what it will take for you to take the next steps to feeling revitalised.
Module 2 – Trauma and healing – Working in the maternity system leaves so many birthworkers traumatised by what they participate in and witness. In this session you'll examine the impacts of vicarious trauma, find ways to heal it, and discover what you can do to avoid it in the future.
Module 3 – Burnout and overwhelm – The impossibility of being unable to change the system can leave birthworkers burnt out, weighed down by the responsibility of women's birth outcomes, and feeling unable to continue. In this session you will gain a deep understanding of what burnout is and identify your own triggers. This means you'll be able to treat the burnout you have, and put preventative measures in place to both stop it from worsening, and reoccurring.
Module 4 – People pleasing and rule following – As women we often feel a strong obligation to follow the rules and perhaps even an unconscious need to keep others happy, but working this way inevitably becomes unsustainable. In this session we will examine how constantly looking over your shoulder contributes to your deep dissatisfaction with your work - and most likely doesn't keep you safe anyway. You'll identify what's underlying these patterns, so that you can release some of that fear and choose more of what YOU want.
Module 5 – Moving forward – Moving forward might mean you want to learn more about business. For many birthworkers this can feel daunting and confusing. In this module you'll discover that you actually need very little to get started or get more of a handle on it. Watch a pre-recorded video that covers some simple business basics, so you can feel confident and prepared to do the work you want to do. There will be a live Q&A session where you can ask whatever you need.
What’s in Birthworker Burnout: Reclaim Your Passion?
Module 1 - What's stopping you moving forward? – Even though many birthworkers find it intolerable to stay working within the industrialised maternity system, it can feel difficult to decide what to do. In this session you will discover what is holding you back, what you really want, and what it will take for you to take the next steps to feeling revitalised.
Module 2 – Trauma and healing – Working in the maternity system leaves so many birthworkers traumatised by what they participate in and witness. In this session you'll examine the impacts of vicarious trauma, find ways to heal it, and discover what you can do to avoid it in the future.
Module 3 – Burnout and overwhelm – The impossibility of being unable to change the system can leave birthworkers burnt out, weighed down by the responsibility of women's birth outcomes, and feeling unable to continue. In this session you will gain a deep understanding of what burnout is and identify your own triggers. This means you'll be able to treat the burnout you have, and put preventative measures in place to both stop it from worsening, and reoccurring.
Module 4 – People pleasing and rule following – As women we often feel a strong obligation to follow the rules and perhaps even an unconscious need to keep others happy, but working this way inevitably becomes unsustainable. In this session we will examine how constantly looking over your shoulder contributes to your deep dissatisfaction with your work - and most likely doesn't keep you safe anyway. You'll identify what's underlying these patterns, so that you can release some of that fear and choose more of what YOU want.
Module 5 – Moving forward – Moving forward might mean you want to learn more about business. For many birthworkers this can feel daunting and confusing. In this module you'll discover that you actually need very little to get started or get more of a handle on it. Watch a pre-recorded video that covers some simple business basics, so you can feel confident and prepared to do the work you want to do. There will be a live Q&A session where you can ask whatever you need.