How many times this month have you said "Yes" when your entire body was screaming "No"?

In birth work (and for many women), we are conditioned to be 'team players'. We smile when we are angry. We undercharge. We soothe a client's guilt when they cancel at the last minute. We reply to texts outside of office hours so we don't seem 'rigid'.

But in nervous system terms, this isn't just 'being nice.' It is a survival response called Fawning.

In this episode, Sarah explores the sneaky, everyday ways we abandon our own boundaries to make others comfortable, and how chronic fawning leads to the most corrosive symptom of burnout: Resentment.

In this episode, we cover:

• The 4th Survival Response: What is "Fawning" and why is it such a brilliant (but costly) survival strategy in birth work?

• The "Micro-Fawns": The quiet, everyday ways we shrink ourselves to keep the peace.

• Fawn vs. Compassion: How to tell if you are helping from a grounded choice or a fear-based compulsion (and addressing the fear that boundaries will hurt your business).

• The Somatic Cost: How unexpressed "No's" show up as jaw tension, migraines, and 3 AM anxiety.

• The Tool: The "Grounding Anchor" practice to help you find your footing—and your gut intuition—before you answer a request.

Stay Connected:

Like/Follow/Subscribe to the podcast

Website: www.sarahhardywalsh.com

Instagram: @theresilientbirthworker

Free Resource: Get the 5-Day Rest + Resilience Reset

You are likely good at your job because you care deeply. But is that caring contributing to burnout?

In this episode, we tackle the "Cost of Caring." We explore the crucial difference between Empathy (feeling with someone) and Compassion (feeling for someone).

We break down Affective Empathy ("The Sponge") versus Cognitive Empathy ("The Witness") and explore why joining your client in their emotional storm isn't actually helpful for them and is dangerous for you.

In this episode, we cover:

• The Research: Why "people-oriented" professionals are prone to empathic distress.

• The Sponge vs. The Witness: How to stop absorbing experiences like a sponge.

• The Oak Tree: Why your client needs you to be an anchor.

• The Tool: The "Screen Door" visualization to protect your energy while remaining connected.

Stay Connected:

• Like/Follow/Subscribe to the podcast

• Website: www.sarahhardywalsh.com

• Instagram: @theresilientbirthworker

Free Resource: Get the 5-Day Rest + Resilience Reset

You’ve tried the yoga. You’ve tried the green smoothies. You’ve tried the gratitude journals and mindfulness meditations. So why do you still feel exhausted?

In this episode, we demystify the nervous system. We move beyond vague terms like "stress" and look at the biological map of your body using a simplified version of Polyvagal Theory.

Sarah breaks down the "Nervous System Ladder"—from the safety of the Green Zone, to the hustle of the Red Zone, down to the numbness of the Blue Zone—and explains why you cannot "mindset" your way out of a survival state.

In this episode, we cover:

• The Ladder: Understanding Ventral (Safe), Sympathetic (Fight/Flight), and Dorsal (Freeze).

• The Blue Zone: Why you procrastinate, "ghost" your business, or collapse after a shift.

• 5 Biological Reasons why standard self-care fails when you are in survival mode.

• The Tool: How to use the "Physiological Sigh" to reset your system in 15 seconds.

Stay Connected:

• Like/Follow/Subscribe to the podcast

• Website: www.sarahhardywalsh.com

• Instagram: @theresilientbirthworker

Free Resource: Get the 5-Day Rest + Resilience Reset

Do you blame yourself for your exhaustion? Do you tell yourself, "If I was just more organized (or tougher), I wouldn't be this tired"?

In this episode, we are flipping the script on burnout. We are moving away from self-blame and looking at the external pressures—the training, the hospital culture, and the "conveyor belt" of care—that force us into survival mode.

Whether you are a clinician taught to prioritize data over intuition, or a community provider managing the "double load" of business and care, this episode is your permission slip to stop blaming yourself.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why "Clinical Distance" is often a recipe for dissociation.

• The "Conveyor Belt" of care: How rapid context-switching depletes the nervous system.

• The isolation of the private practitioner (and why "business mode" feels so unsafe).

• Why your Unseen Armour is actually a brilliant survival strategy (and how to thank it).

Stay Connected:

• Like/Follow/Subscribe to the podcast

• Website: www.sarahhardywalsh.com

• Instagram: @theresilientbirthworker

• Free Resource: Get the 5-Day Rest + Resilience Reset

If you are a birth worker—whether a midwife, doula, nurse, or IBCLC—you likely entered this field with a deep calling. And, somewhere along the way, that calling started to feel heavy.

In this inaugural episode of The Resilient Birth Worker, Sarah Hardy Walsh (ND, IBCLC) shares her personal story of burnout and the moment she found herself lying on her office floor, unable to get up.

We explore the concept of "The Unseen Armour"—the invisible shield we build to survive the intensity of birth work—and why this protective mechanism eventually becomes a cage that disconnects us from our joy.

In this episode, we cover:00:00 Introduction to The Resilient Birth Worker

01:49 Meet Your Host: Sarah Hardy Walsh

03:30 The Journey to Burnout and Realization

06:53 Understanding the Unseen Armor

08:58 Path to Healing and Resilience

09:49 Closing Thoughts and Invitation

Stay Connected:

• Like/Follow/Subscribe to the podcast

• Website: www.sarahhardywalsh.com

• Instagram: @theresilientbirthworker

Free Resource: Get the 5-Day Rest + Resilience Reset

You entered this work with a compassionate heart, fueled by the desire to nourish and support women as they traverse matrescence. And, the reality of cultural pressures and the broken system you're working within or alongside has left you feeling depleted and disconnected. To survive, many of us develop an "Unseen Armour"—a protective layer to shield your heart from the heartbreak of not being able to provide care in the ways mothers need and separates you from your unique, intuitive wisdom and vitality.

Welcome to The Resilient Birth Worker. This is the space that nourishes and holds you as you learn to release the armour. Here, we move beyond surface-level self-care to the true foundation of resilience: the capacity of your nervous system to hold you steady as you navigate life and to be restored after activation or depletion. Guided by Dr. Sarah, a naturopathic doctor, lactation consultant and matrescence guide, each episode offers a blend of wisdom and practical tools to support your journey.

This is your invitation to cultivate grounded wellness and experience profound growth and transformation. We believe that when you feel more resourced, so too are the families you hold. When your energy is restored, so too is the life you desire.

Let's root in.