Season 7 Episode 3: Resiliency for Birth Workers with Nicole Heidbreder

InCast

While witnessing the miracle of birth can be exhilarating, it is often wrought with circumstances that create stress, confusion, grief—and sometimes even burnout— in nurses, caregivers, doulas, and other birth workers. The COVID and post-COVID period has brought even more tension into the mix with restrictions and staffing issues. Listen to explore the problems and discover some solutions to make life as a birth worker more resilient and satisfying.

Nicole Heidbreder has worked as a Hospice Nurse and Labor and Delivery Nurse in various capacities for the last 10 years in the Washington, DC area, in addition to teaching Birth and End of Life Doula Workshops. As a birth worker, Nicole has been attending births as a doula for over 17 years in Washington, DC, New York City, San Francisco, Sumatra, Bali, and Uganda, in addition to working as a labor and delivery nurse at George Washington University Hospital. Currently, she also facilitates independent birth doula workshops and trains nursing students as a Clinical Instructor with the Johns Hopkins University Birth Companions Program. Through her work as a DONA International approved Birth Doula Trainer, she has taught hundreds of women over the past 10 years and truly believes that teaching maternal child health is her life's calling.

Listen and Learn

• Why over 38% of RNs are likely to leave their position in the next 2 years

• What drains birth worker passion

• What support is available to current birth workers to reconnect to the joy of birth work

• How birth workers with different levels of specialty and education working together can create friction

• When birth workers experience PTSD

• How a mindset of post-traumatic growth can be a game changer

• Practical skills for nonviolent communication for high-stress birth situations

• The best ways to use grounding and anchoring practices

• How to set boundaries and avoid saviorism

Contact Nicole at [e-mail]

Resources & Mentions:

Learn more about Nicole’s Resiliency for Birth Workers workshop here: https://www.gracefulfusion.com/

Related Products from InJoy:

Understanding Birth Curriculum