Twelve weeks of parental leave. Then you're back at your desk, wondering why it feels so hard.

Today we’re posting an episode from Rattled, our podcast for parents of newborns and babies, because it’s about something everybody experiences. It’s the final part of our three-part series with Care.com on finding care for your baby, and it's about a transition nobody preps you for: going back to work.

Dr. Becky sits down with Lauren Smith Brody, journalist and author of The Fifth Trimester, who's interviewed hundreds of working moms about this exact moment (and lived it herself). Lauren calls her own first day back "the second cutting of the cord." She's got names for feelings you didn't know had names: benevolent discrimination, gatekeeping, the 0.5x version of yourself who has to show up the second you walk through your front door.

They also get practical: how to turn decisions into systems before decision fatigue wrecks your evening, what a "ramp up" program actually looks like, and why mom guilt is, in Lauren's words, "a sexist, classist social construct" you can solve for like a math problem.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with Care.com. Find background-checked nannies, sitters, and daycares at Care.com, and use code BECKY35 for 35% off your membership.

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Thank you to Care.com for making this episode possible. For a limited time, you can use the code BECKY35 to save 35% on a Care.com Premium Membership.*

*Offer applies to initial term of Care.com membership subscriptions. Not applicable to add-on features or non-renewing access fees or services. Expires 10/31/26. Care.com does not employ or place any caregiver. Background checks are an important start, but they have limits. Visit www.care.com/safety.

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"You don't have what it takes." That's the sentence that ran through Dr. Becky's head the night her baby threw up an entire bottle on her, minutes before she was due out the door. It's not a sentence parenting experts are “supposed to” have.

Dr. Becky sits down with Emily Oster — economist, Brown University professor, founder of ParentData, and author of Expecting Better, Cribsheet, The Family Firm, and The Unexpected — to play a game: Science, or Vibes? They sort real claims parents hear all the time, on peanuts and allergy prevention, breastfeeding and attachment, sleep training, screen time, developmental milestones, and whether ChatGPT or Claude should be your parenting oracle at 11pm.

Then they talk about the limits of expertise. Emily on teaching a business school class while her daughter was in the ER. Dr. Becky on the night her own psychology training couldn't talk her out of feeling like a failure. Their careers are built on having answers, and they describe the nights neither of them had one.

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Looking for more support navigating pregnancy, postpartum, and life with a new baby? Good Inside Baby gives you practical tools, scripts, and expert guidance for the moments that can feel most overwhelming in early parenthood. For a limited time, new subscribers to Good Inside get a year of Parent Data free!

Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible:

• Frida: Shop Frida’s bath time collection at Amazon, Target, and Walmart today
• LMNT: Get a free gift with your purchase at drinkLMNT.com/goodinside
• Little Spoon: Get 50% off your first order at littlespoon.com/rattled with code RATTLED
• Oso & Me: Use the code OSOGOOD15 for 15% off clothes newborn through age ten

Learn more about Good Inside.

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Ten days. Three weeks. Two and a half years. Ask a room full of parents when they first left their baby with someone else, and you'll get every answer there is. Dr. Becky says the number matters less than what's happening underneath it.

In this solo episode, the second in a three-part series with Care.com, Dr. Becky breaks down the anxiety that shows up when it's time to hand your baby to someone else, even someone you trust. She names the pattern behind it: emotional reasoning, the habit of mistaking how scared you feel for how likely something is to go wrong. She also gives that scared part of you a name.

Three moves for the next time you have to walk out the door: name the fear, make the first attempt absurdly small, and change what you ask when you get back.

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Looking for more support navigating pregnancy, postpartum, and life with a new baby? Good Inside Baby gives you practical tools, scripts, and expert guidance for the moments that can feel most overwhelming in early parenthood.

Thank you to Care.com for making this episode possible. For a limited time, you can use the code BECKY35 to save 35% on a Care.com Premium Membership.*

*Offer applies to initial term of Care.com membership subscriptions. Not applicable to add-on features or non-renewing access fees or services. Expires 10/31/26. Care.com does not employ or place any caregiver. Background checks are an important start, but they have limits. Visit www.care.com/safety.

Learn more about Good Inside.

Follow Dr. Becky on Instagram.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.