Putting Mental Health First with Gina Baird
If you have ever felt like you were drowning quietly while everyone assumed you had it together, this episode is for you. This week on The Chaotic Middle Podcast, you’ll get a first-row seat as I chat with Gina Baird, a licensed independent clinical social worker and certified perinatal mental health professional with over 15 years of experience supporting children, families, and adults in Seattle, Washington.
Gina's career path found her almost by accident. What she has built since has become a genuine resource for postpartum mental health support. Her practice is the kind that acknowledges no two families, no two losses, and no two parenting journeys look the same.
How the Universe Placed Her in Perinatal Care
Gina's first job after grad school was in a pediatrician's office, physically located between the pediatric side and women's health. That proximity changed everything. As she got to know families coming in for newborn visits, she started wondering how she could support them earlier, specifically during pregnancy itself, not just after the baby arrived.
That shift toward more holistic, preventative family care became the foundation of her entire career. And then, while doing that very work, she became pregnant with her first daughter.
"It helped me see things a lot more clearly, and be really humble, and tune in to what my interests were at that stage of my life."
Motherhood has a way of humbling you no matter how much professional expertise you bring into the room. Gina would be the first to tell you that.
The Biggest Challenge Parents Face
Ask Gina what the number one struggle is for parents right now, and her answer is refreshingly simple: not asking for help, or not asking for enough of it.
Part of that comes from not trusting yourself to know what you actually need, especially when what helps you might look nothing like what helped your neighbor, your sister, or a stranger on the internet.
Help can mean mental health support. It can mean someone bringing dinner. It can mean hiring overnight newborn care so you can finally sleep. It can also just mean having a friend sit on your messy couch for an hour so you don't feel so alone.
"People love to help. So tuning in to what you're actually needing, and being creative about how to meet that need, is so important."
That need for community doesn't disappear once the newborn stage ends. Putting that need into words is often the hardest first step toward healing.
A Note on Reproductive Loss and Trauma
Content warning: this section discusses pregnancy loss.
In addition to perinatal and postpartum care, Gina also supports people navigating reproductive loss, infertility, and trauma. Having worked on inpatient labor and delivery and NICU teams, she has seen firsthand how much these experiences deserve to be witnessed and honored, not hidden away.
"When we feel something alone, like sadness or shame, we feel it more intensely."
I shared with Gina that I personally experienced an ectopic pregnancy three years after having my tubes tied. I didn't even know that was possible until it happened to me. Talking openly about it led to something I wasn't expecting: people quietly reaching out to tell me it had happened to them too, and that they had never told anyone else.
That is exactly the point Gina makes about reproductive loss. It is not something anyone did wrong. And having a space to process it through therapy, or simply someone else's honesty, makes an enormous difference in how alone it feels.
Parenting Herself While Helping Other Parents
Gina is transparent with her clients about being a mom of two. She doesn't share personal stories unless they're genuinely relevant, but her own parenting experience shapes how she shows up in every session. Real life, like a sick kid at home, an unexpected school pickup, or a forgotten permission slip, happens, and she doesn't pretend otherwise.
"Being a parent helps us understand other parents in a very different way."
That authenticity is part of what makes her approach to postpartum mental health support feel less clinical and more human. She isn't offering advice from a distance. She's in the chaotic middle right alongside her clients.
The Journals Born From Real Parent Requests
Long before designing her reflective journals for new parents and for parents of toddlers and preschoolers, Gina ran local parent support groups. Every session ended with a reflective question, and parents kept asking her to email the prompts so they could revisit them with a partner or friend. Eventually, she turned those requests into printed journals.
One couple bought two copies and would each answer the same prompt separately, then compare answers over dinner. It became a small ritual that kept them connected while both were changing into new versions of themselves.
Gina is now considering a version designed for middle schoolers and their parents to complete together, sparked partly by our conversation about how hard it is to get a real answer out of a preteen with a simple "how was school today." A specific, low-pressure question tends to open doors that a generic one never will.
The Anchored Parent: Bringing Therapy Tools to Everyone
Gina is also developing a program called The Anchored Parent, blending her experience running parent groups, teaching as a university lecturer, and working in private practice. The goal is to take the most common themes that come up in therapy and make them accessible to people who can't or won't invest in traditional therapy right now.
"This reduces the feeling of being alone when you hear other people's stories, and I'm gaining skills that feel relevant to my own parenting journey."
It's a shorter-term, community-based approach that lowers the barrier to entry without lowering the value of the support. And honestly, in a world where the stigma around therapy still lingers, that kind of accessible middle ground matters.
Answering the Chaotic Questions
If you could go back and talk to your 2005 self, what would you tell her?
Okay, so 2005 self, I was in my young 20s. Oh my gosh. I would just say, honestly, keep traveling and exploring and being curious. I think there was just this eagerness for understanding the world and information. I remember my friends' parents would say, “Yes, now is the time to go travel, go do that!” and I didn't understand it. But I'm so glad that I did it because now you know I can't stay in a random hostel with my kids. I can't show up somewhere without a reservation. I am glad that I did that, and I would probably even tell myself to do more of it.
A new mom comes to you for advice. What's the first thing you tell her?
Instead of advice, a question: "How are you?" Not how's the baby, not how's the business. Just, how are you?
What do you hope your kids remember about this time?
I think, honestly, that there's a lot of just joy. I really love this stage of parenting where I kind of like some of the same things my kids like. I am also grateful that they get to see me doing a job that I love, being my own boss, and setting my own hours so that I can show up for their events or whatever it might be at school.
Where to Find Gina
You can connect with Gina through her website or reach her directly by email. If you're a new parent, or a parent of a toddler or preschooler, her reflective journals are absolutely worth checking out.
Want to Hear More Stories Like This?
If this episode resonated with you, you are going to love The Chaotic Middle Podcast, where every week I sit down with real people navigating the beautiful, messy overlap of work, life, and motherhood. No perfectly curated advice. Just honest and candid conversations.
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Because more of us need permission to ask, "how are you?" — and mean it.
