Which Stage Are You In? The Medical Mama Journey From Survival to Community
About this episode
Dr. Johanna Hartley discusses the emotional stages of medical parenting and offers support for caregivers navigating complex medical journeys.
Medical parenting does not come with a roadmap. One day you are surviving the diagnosis, the appointments, the surgeries, the research, and the fear — and somewhere along the way, you realize you do not even know what stage you are in. In this solo episode of Born For This Stories, Dr. Johanna Hartley walks through the emotional stages many medical moms experience while navigating a child's diagnosis, surgery, chronic illness, birth defect, rare condition, or medically complex journey. This is not a checklist or a timeline. It is a mirror for the mom who has been living in survival mode and wondering why she still feels lost, even when life looks like it is moving forward. Johanna breaks down five stages of the medical mama journey: survival, the first exhale, reaching, showing up, and choosing it. From the early days of Googling everything and running on adrenaline to finding community, sharing your story, and learning how to show up for yourself again, this episode gives language to an experience so many caregivers are living but cannot always name. If you are a mom navigating medical parenting, caregiver burnout, decision fatigue, hypervigilance, guilt, or the long quiet after…
People in this episode
Host: Dr. Johanna Hartley
More episodes of Born For This Stories
- Season Two Recap: Medical Parenting, Community, and What Comes Next for Born For This Stories
- Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Kids: Healing, Recovery, and What Parents Need to Know
- Lindsay's Story (Part 2): Fascia, Midline Defects, and Understanding the Body's Healing Connections
- Lindsay's Story (Part 1): Hypospadias, Trusting Your Intuition, and Choosing a Different Path
- HELD: A Safe Space for Medical Moms, Caregiver Healing, and Finding Community
- Who Am I Now? Rediscovering Yourself Beyond Caregiver Burnout and Medical Motherhood
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