Maternal Burnout & Maternal Mental Health

Postnatal depletion, parental burnout, postpartum exhaustion, stress, overwhelm and maternal mental health - pregnancy and postnatal depression and anxiety…

Motherhood creates a complex swirling picture and multifaceted care and support are required in order for mothers to thrive.

It’s important to know. You are worthy of feeling well.

  • To feel like it’s your fault if you find it challenging or lonely or boring or hard.

    It can be confusing and overwhelming - and on some level you might believe that's your fault.

    This is when many of us begin to put on a happy face. To smile externally while performing double-time and feeling turbulent inside.

    .

    None of these hard things are your fault.

    Difficult experiences in these transitions are common.

    You deserve better. (You always have). You deserve to be seen and supported.

I offer to walk with you as your motherhood support person.

To hold space for you as you navigate the mess and glory of motherhood. To support you as you actively manage and restore from maternal burnout. To encourage you to step towards genuine maternal thriving.

I’m a motherhood studies practitioner, acupuncturist, Chinese herbalist, doula, educator and lived experience peer support - all rolled into one.

Self Sacrificial Motherhood vs Embodied Motherhood

  • So many things get tangled up and compacted together. Our needs are silenced and our self is sacrificed. We are stuck like characters in a story. And it sets the stage for our depletion.

    The glorification of Self Sacrificial Motherhood is delivering an entire generation of mothers straight into the hands of overwhelm, exhaustion and burnout.

    Through this construct mothers are minimised, silenced and dehumanised. Their basic human needs are divorced from their bodies. Mothers are stretched too thin to function. Their health is not valued or nurtured. Postnatal depletion is, perhaps, inevitable.

    To deep dive into how we as a society and culture think and talk about mothers and motherhood see absolute expert in this field: Dr Sophie Brock

Self Sacrificial Motherhood creates the conditions for:

Perfectionism, Exhaustion, Rage, Anger and Guilt

which all have the power to reinforce each other

With wisdom and greater awareness we can open it up.

We can meet tangled stuckness with our own agile and reflexive thinking. We can lean into Embodied Motherhood.

  • Dethroning and disempowering self sacrificial motherhood allows us to create our own story. Allows us to see: we’re worthy as humans, all on our own.

    We bring awareness to what nourishes us - what makes us feel expansive and whole.

    We more deeply excavate our identity. So that we can be lead by our own values.

    We lean into the autonomy to claim what we want and the agility to bend.

    We voice our needs and call in the support we deserve.

    We accept Mother Focused Care.

Embodied Motherhood creates the conditions for:

Curiosity, Self Awareness, Self Compassion, Allowing What Is

which have the power to scaffold and positively reinforce each other

In Clinic, Online, In Home & Small Group Support

  • At Juno Specialist, Richmond

    Book here

    More about In Clinic Support

  • Conducted via Zoom. Acupuncture and herbs won’t be possible, but all the other layers of support and holding are ready for you

    Includes:

    4 x 1hr Sessions (Online) spaced every 3 weeks approx - we'll make a scheduling plan during our first session together

    Post Session Summary I’ll email a summary following our session together so you won't have to take notes. This may include: what to prioritise, tools and skills, things to delve into - book titles, podcasts, research articles, meditations, resources and referrals

    Written Resources about aspects of support we cover so you can reflect further

    Cost $600 paid prior to our first session

    *

    More information about Online Support

  • Sessions are 90 mins and conducted in your home. Between Mornington and Richmond and surrounds. Email location Q's

    Includes:

    4 x 1.5hr Sessions (In Home) spaced weekly / fortnightly / monthly depending on circumstance

    Written Resources about aspects of support we cover so you can revisit and share with your support people

    Communication Support text or voice memo communication between sessions so you’ll continue to feel heard and held. A place to reach out for encouragement, basic troubleshooting and reminders on rough days. I’ll do my best to get back to you same day.

    Cost: $1400 (4 Sessions + support between sessions)

    Payment: $350 paid prior to each session. Or all upfront. Herbs extra

    More about In Home Support

  • Small Groups:

    • Reclaiming Motherhood

    • Neurodivergent Motherhood

    at Juno Specialists, Richmond

    Details here

If you’d like support exploring what’s best for you, book a complimentary 20 minute Intro Call.

Maternal Burnout Approach Layers:

  • Education, preparation and awareness building before you arrive in burnout.

    Establishing a strong foundation from which you can grow.

  • We are often aware of our bodies 'tells' - the symptoms and patterns that indicate things are starting to go downhill.

    The problem is that we don’t necessarily have the capacity / resources / skills / time / mental bandwidth / plan ready to take action and prioritise their resolution.

    Learning to recognise and acting on your specific early 'tells' - anxiety, low mood, overwhelm, insomnia, exhaustion, digestive changes, pain etc

  • For when you're in burnout and require restoration.

    Individualised care and support to step towards recovery

    Deprioritising all non essential tasks, outsourcing, letting go

    Sustainable mothering practices

    Minimising information intake - focusing on basics

    Forming a comprehensive healthcare and support team

  • Individualised care and support

    Implementing sustainable mothering practices

    Building an understanding the mechanisms behind maternal burnout and postnatal depletion

    Introducing the idea of embodied motherhood

    Building self compassion practice

    If burnout cycles are being driven by neurodiversity, building skills, tools and resources for that

    Continuing to work with healthcare and support team to rebuild

  • Understanding what happened - building awareness of the active role self sacrificial motherhood / dehumanised motherhood play in burnout and depletion cycles

    Skill building / awareness building to allow for early intervention in the future

    Creating the mental space to choose to take a different path / define what you want

    Construction of true mother wellbeing

I Provide 6 Layers of Support

I offer care and support that are tailored to your particular story so you’ll feel nurtured, resourced, educated and supported. Clear around priorities and able to plan for further along the path. So you’re seen, heard and held along every step of the way.

More about the 6 Layers of Support

Understanding & Approaching Maternal Mental Health

What Motherhood Sessions Are / Are Not

  • a focus on your child / your childs needs

    an outside-in, masked, aesthetically pleasing glossy happy perpetuation of The Perfect Mother

    ‘5 steps to perfect, seamless motherhood’

    ‘I Have All The Answers - Do What I Do’

    or more things to feel guilty about

  • Mother Focused Care

    Space to have your experience listened to from start to finish

    Allowing honest, gritty and real conversations to unfold with tenderness

    Genuine exploration of what you’re carrying

    Naming the depth of the mothering experience, and humanise the mothering role

    Fostering self-compassion and mirroring back to you your strength and beauty

    Melting confusion and overwhelm with expansive, targeted learning

    Finding the places we can positively impact your experience

    Fostering conditions for your body to feel safe and held so you can take deep breaths and see clearly

    Scaffolding support around you to allow you to grow.

    Allowing for non-linear, completely-human lopsided healing.

    Unravelling and unlearning the old to create something new

    And what you create - your new story of being within motherhood - is exactly your own. And because it’s yours, it’s the perfect fit. And it's stunning.

I weave layers of multifaceted care, education, awareness building and support. I’m coming as both a practitioner with rich clinical experience and a peer with lived experience.

  • I’ve learned to understand, unpack, name and speak to the societal dimensions of Motherhood.

    From conception onwards there are very real ways that the expectations of being 'a good mother’ influences our experiences and outcomes.

    We receive strong messaging to present our experience of conception, pregnancy and motherhood through a single, neat-and-tidy lens of gratitude. Which can act to quieten, minimise and bury internally the more complex reality of our experiences.

    Embedded messaging around sacrificing ourselves for our mothering role creates conditions for maternal depletion and burnout.

  • I’ve provided holistic, collaborative care and support for conception, pregnancy, postpartum and motherhood for over 15 years.

    I bring a Chinese Medicine lens and all I've learnt from my clinical experience into our work together.

  • I've invested time pouring over how to support women stepping up to, during and stepping down from birth.

    This is such a significant passage of time and adequate support really is path altering. Ripples over decades.

    Doulas provide a sense of nurturing often described as ‘mothering the mother'. In all my work I weave in the support and holding aspects of being a doula.

  • There is no need to mask or smile over - I have a lived experience of many of the themes and moments you're navigating.

    I've also deeply listened to so many traversing these years to extend what I know beyond my own direct experiences.

    Honesty is allowed and for many, sharing off the mask brings a sigh of relief and a level of comfort.

    .

    Now further down the track from my own motherhood transition years, I have access to a level of self awareness and knowledge I didn't then.

    I can see the ramifications and damaging ripple effects to my own health caused by choices I made. Choices that were informed by societal norms I wasn't aware of at the time.

    I'm here to make them visible to you. The invisible concepts and stories swirling through these years.

    This will offer you greater perspective and a solid foundation to take back your health and claim your experiences as your own.

Specific holding is required for

  • The early years of mothering can be pivotal for our health, relationships, work and identity. They often require meaning making, fresh perspectives, greater tools and genuine care.

    Mothers deserve space to receive care. To be supported in integrating experiences, and remaining present to the rapid skill acquisition and maternal thinking that define these huge transition years.

    Mothers deserve to emerge from the early years feeling transformed and alive. Strong and powerful. And open to the completely new parts of themselves that have been revealed in this transition.

    We require space and guidance to create our own internally led mother story. To step outside social norms and into counter-cultural maternal thriving.

  • A wave of women and mothers are being diagnosed ND later in life. Myself included.

    Masking to perform the perfect mother when you’re already masking a neurodivergent identity is a wild ride.

    The patchwork accomodations you’ve been relying on to function prior to motherhood no longer hold. Matchstick scaffolding comes crashing down.

    It can be painful and disorientating.

    It can unleash a tidal wave of learning and self-reflection. About masking and coping mechanisms. About worth and productivity and the ableist lens.

    For late diagnosed ND mothers, the shakey identity that’s common in motherhood feels more like the floor’s been removed from under you. It’s not just a matter of reclaiming your identity, but excavating it from underneath a lifetime of performing roles.

    I meet you in your ND motherhood experience as a ND practitioner and mother who has walked these turbulent years. I offer compassionate space holding, individualised care and gentle supportive navigation.

    Let’s have you feeling held while we you up-skill, relearn and reimagine.

Holding space for the ‘and’ in motherhood

  • Side by side.

    We can remember, again, that we contain multitudes.

    We can love our kids AND be completely burnt-out.

    We can relish their existence AND have an almost visceral need to rest.

    We can ache with joy for them AND ache in weariness to have to get up one more time.

    We can feel their softness AND feel our own frustration at the request of one more snack.

    We can be bored and exhausted and overloaded and overwhelmed and overstimulated and lonely all in one breath. And none of it is a reflection of our commitment or our love.

    We can hold space for it all. Honour it all.

    We can invite grace for our very human needs.

My wish is that once we cross paths, you remember what that feels like. That you count me as a member of your support team. So that if you ever find yourself struggling with the mother-load - months or even years down the track, you remember the safety and nourishment from our time together, and feel confident and comfortable to draw that support back towards you.

I’m Amy O’Brien

Through my work I’ve had the opportunity to actively listen to and walk alongside a huge number of people navigating these same transitions and hard things.

In 15 years of clinical practice I’ve become aware of the complexity that through-line these transitional years into/of motherhood. In response I’ve diversified and extended my own knowledge and skill to meet these challenges in more dynamic ways.

In my own transition into and experience of mothering / motherhood, there was so much I didn’t know. So much I learned the long way round. And so much I needed more adequate support for.

I am here to rewrite the mother story.

To shed light on it all. To stand alongside you in strength. To offer what I’ve learned and cultivated from both my lived and professional clinical experiences.

I’ll hold space, educate and help you prioritise and plan so your experience is as cocooned and supported as possible. So you feel held, resourced and strong through conception, pregnancy, birth preparation, postpartum, the huge transition into motherhood.

Important Note: I am not a GP, a Psychologist or counsellor.

I cannot provide medical care or comprehensive psychological support.

I will always be clear around my scope of practice and refer to appropriate services for whole person care.

Every person I work with will receive information about helplines and community organisations working in the areas you’re traversing.