# Tay Lautner on Burnout, the First Trimester, and Motherhood
Tay Lautner spent her nursing career caring for others before burnout and PTSD forced her to step away from bedside work. Now she's become a vocal advocate for mental health and motherhood, sharing her experience with the realities nobody prepares you for.
Lautner worked as a nurse during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a period that left deep marks on healthcare workers nationwide. The psychological toll of that work, combined with the demands of bedside nursing, eventually led to her PTSD diagnosis and her difficult decision to leave the profession. Rather than disappear, she pivoted her caregiving instincts toward talking openly about mental health struggles and the isolation that comes with nursing burnout.
Her transition into motherhood brought another revelation: the first trimester comes with emotional and physical challenges that extend far beyond what most pregnancy resources cover. Lautner speaks to the postpartum period's mental health components, the identity shift new mothers experience, and the lack of honest conversation around these transitions. Healthcare providers focus heavily on physical recovery while overlooking the psychological adjustment that new parents navigate.
What makes Lautner's voice distinct is her willingness to name specific struggles rather than soften them with positivity. She acknowledges that becoming a mother while recovering from burnout and trauma creates layered complexity. She discusses how caregiving professionals often struggle to receive care themselves, a pattern that affects their mental health and their capacity to parent.
Her work addresses a gap in maternal mental health conversations. Most pregnancy and parenting content emphasizes bonding moments or developmental milestones. Lautner centers the harder parts: the identity loss, the resentment, the grief of the life you imagined versus the life you're living. For nurses and healthcare workers specifically, this