Dr. Amna Shabbir's Experience with Pregnancy, Postpartum Depression, and Self-Compassion as a Physician Mom

Shownotes For Podcast Episode 5: Dr. Amna Shabbir's Experience with Pregnancy, Postpartum Depression, and Self-Compassion as a Physician Mom

What happens when the identity you have spent years building begins to intersect with a new and equally profound role?

In this episode of The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast, Dr. Jessica Singh is joined by Dr. Amna Shabbir, who shares her experience of pregnancy, postpartum depression, and the ongoing process of cultivating self-compassion. Dr. Shabbir is a TEDx Speaker, Top Podcast Host, and dual board-certified physician with advanced training in integrative well-being, performance, and leadership development. She speaks, coaches, and consults on perfectionism, sustainable success, and the well-being of high achievers. In this episode, Dr. Shabbir shares her experience navigating motherhood within the demands of medicine. 

Dr. Shabbir Reflects on Her Journey From Medicine to Entrepreneurship Through the Lens of Motherhood

Dr. Shabbir reflects on the experiences that shaped the person she has become, including cultural identity, high expectations, perfectionism, burnout, moral injury, motherhood, the pandemic, and physical health challenges. She describes her journey as one shaped by both joy and adversity, and shares how stepping from traditional medicine into entrepreneurship created space for deeper reflection. Through the lens of motherhood, she began to more clearly see the workaholism, toxic achievement, and perfectionism that had long influenced her life, and to consider how those patterns were shaping not only her own experience, but also the way she was showing up for her children and herself.

Dr. Shabbir Reflects on Her Experience with Pregnancy, Postpartum Depression, and Healing

Dr. Shabbir shares openly about becoming pregnant during residency while also learning she could be facing a serious health issue. She reflects on how frightening and disorienting that time was, even within a supportive training environment, and how much she had to manage physically and emotionally while continuing to work. She also speaks candidly about experiencing postpartum depression after both pregnancies, including the silence, shame, and fear that made it difficult to name what she was going through. With remarkable honesty, she describes the pressure of trying to hold together multiple identities while struggling internally, and the moment she finally accepted help. Her story offers a moving reflection on suffering, survival, and the courage it can take to begin healing.

Dr. Shabbir Reflects on Letting Go of Judgment and Choosing Compassion

Dr. Shabbir reflects on the judgment that so often surrounds motherhood, especially when someone is already carrying guilt, exhaustion, or self-doubt. She speaks about the pain of being judged in moments when she was doing her best, including around breastfeeding and other deeply personal decisions, and how those experiences deepened her understanding of compassion. Rather than responding from resentment, she offers a powerful invitation to pause, let go of assumptions, and ask what support someone actually needs. Her reflections speak to the importance of meeting mothers with greater humility, tenderness, and nonjudgmental awareness.

Dr. Shabbir Reflects on Returning to Work After Childbirth and Navigating Motherhood and Medicine

Dr. Shabbir reflects on the emotional and practical realities of returning to work after childbirth, including the pain of leaving her child, the physical demands of recovery, and the pressure to step back into medicine as though nothing had changed. She shares what it was like to return first as a resident and later as an attending, and how those experiences brought different forms of guilt, expectation, and strain. She also speaks to the broader challenges physician mothers face, from pumping and childcare to the lack of workplace support and flexibility that can make an already vulnerable season even harder. Her reflections offer an honest look at what it means to try to hold both motherhood and medicine with care in systems that do not always make room for either.

Dr. Shabbir’s Advice and Takeaways on Navigating Motherhood and Medicine

Dr. Shabbir closes the episode with thoughtful and deeply grounded advice for physician mothers and those who support them. She encourages listeners to pause, slow down, and recognize the pressures they may be carrying before those pressures become overwhelming. She names perfectionism, guilt, limited structural support, and identity conflict as recurring challenges, and invites women to define success according to the season they are in rather than according to rigid or inherited expectations. Her message is one of self-compassion, flexibility, and asking for help without shame. Whether that help comes in the form of support at home, coaching, counseling, therapy, medication, or simply being honest with someone trusted, her reflections offer reassurance that no one is meant to carry all of this alone.

For physicians, and for those who support them, there is something meaningful in hearing these experiences spoken aloud. Not as a solution, but as a reminder that they are not faced alone.

TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNIzzM4Vg3s 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dr.AmnaShabbir

Podcast: https://dramnashabbir.transistor.fm/episodes

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amna-shabbir-md/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.amnashabbir/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dr.amnashabbir.md

Website: https://www.dramnashabbir.com/ 

Bio:

Dr. Amna Shabbir is a dual board-certified physician with advanced training in integrative well-being, leadership development, and behavior change science. Trained at Duke University and the Cleveland Clinic, she spent over a decade caring for individuals with complex chronic conditions across outpatient clinics, hospital systems, and rehabilitation facilities.

A Duke Certified Integrative Wellness Coach and National Board-Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC), Dr. Shabbir blends medical expertise with evidence-based coaching to help high achievers and organizations optimize well-being, redefine success, and create sustainable cultures of thriving.

She is the Founder and CEO of the Early Career Physicians Institute® and Success Curated, an Ambassador for the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, and a TEDx Speaker - where she delivered her talk, “Perfectionism Has a Solution - It’s Not What You Think.” In her widely recognized podcast, Success Reimagined with Amna Shabbir, MD - ranked in the Top 5% globally- she explores the crossroads of ambition and wellness, sparking transformative conversations that inspire courage and change.

Beyond her professional pursuits, Dr. Shabbir proudly embraces her most meaningful title - Super Mom to two young girls.

Timestamps:

 0 - Introduction

2:14 - Dr. Shabbir Reflects on Her Journey From Medicine to Entrepreneurship Through the Lens of Motherhood

7:10 - Dr. Shabbir Reflects on Her Experience with Pregnancy, Postpartum Depression, and Healing

18:43 - Dr. Shabbir Reflects on Letting Go of Judgment and Choosing Compassion 

24:04 - Dr. Shabbir Reflects on Returning to Work After Childbirth and Navigating Motherhood and Medicine

34:19 - Dr. Shabbir’s Advice and Takeaways on Navigating Motherhood and Medicine