Birthworker Burnout: Reclaim Your Passion
Discover healing, freedom and how to build your business
An 6-week program with Kelly Silk and Leisa Masters
An 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 as you prepare to move forward.
This course is right for you if:
- You've been working in the industrialised maternity system and feel like you just can't do it anymore
- You love helping birthing women but you feel stressed, traumatised and burnt out
- You know you need to begin healing from what you've seen and experienced
- You think about leaving but you don't know how and you are afraid of what might happen
- You'd like to build your birth business but feel out of your depth and don't know what it would look like
This course is designed to care for you as you consider your work in the industrialised maternity system. Through validation, empathy and deep questioning, this space will provide the opportunity for healing and a new perspective on your work, reclaim your passion and clear the way for you to move forward to do what you really want.
Meet Leisa ...
Leisa Masters is a mother, accomplished birthworker and experienced business manager. She has been supporting women in pregnancy, birth and motherhood for over a decade. 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 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 industrialised 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, until we realised that it was actually futile. Something had to change, but it would never be the system. We both tried countless different ways of trying to keep going helping women, until we realised the only way to get through was to get out..
Since leaving behind our work in the maternity system, we have been able to build businesses that align with our with-woman values. Our businesses are authentic extensions of ourselves and our lives, creating freedom and a deep sense of working in integrity.
Deciding what steps to take to reclaim our passion and love our work again can be a complex process. It can feel scary, like you don't know where to start. It can feel overwhelming. You may feel guilty, worrying if you are leaving women behind. It may even be lonely when those around you don't understand. You wonder how you could even make it work on your own, and what will other people think of what you decide.
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.
Since leaving behind our work in the maternity system, we have been able to build businesses that align with our with-woman values. Our businesses are authentic extensions of ourselves and our lives, creating freedom and a deep sense of working in integrity.
Deciding what steps to take to reclaim our passion and love our work again can be a complex process. It can feel scary, like you don't know where to start. It can feel overwhelming. You may feel guilty, worrying if you are leaving women behind. It may even be lonely when those around you don't understand. You wonder how you could even make it work on your own, and what will other people think of what you decide.
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.
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 examine what is holding you back, what you really want, and what it will take for you to make the next steps.
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 and discover why you don't have to keep feeling it.
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 we will hold space together to acknowledge the realities and the complexity of working this way and discover ways to support ourselves and our nervous systems with compassion and understanding.
Module 4 – Workshop Week – As birthworkers in the system can have so many of the same challenges, however when it comes to deciding what to do next, different and individual problems can emerge. This week Kelly and Leisa will help you identify and unpack you specific difficulties.
Module 5 – Moving forward – Moving forward might mean you want to consider building and developing your business. For many birthworkers this can feel overwhelming and confusing. In this module you'll discover that you actually need very little to get started or to shift. Watch a pre-recorded video that covers some simple business basics, so you can feel confident about doing 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 examine what is holding you back, what you really want, and what it will take for you to make the next steps.
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 and discover why you don't have to keep feeling it.
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 we will hold space together to acknowledge the realities and the complexity of working this way and discover ways to support ourselves and our nervous systems with compassion and understanding.
Module 4 – Workshop Week – As birthworkers in the system can have so many of the same challenges, however when it comes to deciding what to do next, different and individual problems can emerge. This week Kelly and Leisa will help you identify and unpack you specific difficulties.
Module 5 – Moving forward – Moving forward might mean you want to consider building and developing your business. For many birthworkers this can feel overwhelming and confusing. In this module you'll discover that you actually need very little to get started or to shift. Watch a pre-recorded video that covers some simple business basics, so you can feel confident about doing the work you want to do. There will be a live Q&A session where you can ask whatever you need.