It’s 2am. The baby is finally asleep on your chest, and somehow your laptop is still open on the other arm, glowing at you like it’s waiting for an answer.
Invoices unsent. Emails unread.
A launch you promised yourself you wouldn’t fall behind on. You tell yourself you’ll rest tomorrow. Tomorrow becomes next week. Next week becomes “when things calm down,” which, if you’re a founder, rarely comes.
If this feels a little too familiar, you are far from alone.
A peer-reviewed study of mothers in Kuala Lumpur found that 14.29% experience postpartum depression within six months of giving birth, with national prevalence ranging as high as 22.8% in some regions.
Zoom out further, and a 2023 regional study found that 60% of female employees across Southeast Asia report high burnout, a rate 1.25 times higher than their male peers. This isn’t rare nor is it a matter of weakness. This is simply what carrying too much, quietly, for too long, tends to look like.
For founders, the weight lands differently. There’s rarely someone to hand the reins to. Stepping back can feel like letting people down: your team, your clients, the business you built from nothing.
So many of us learn to push through instead of pause, mistaking exhaustion for dedication.
But here’s the truth worth sitting with: asking for help is not a luxury. It is not indulgent, and it is certainly not a failure of leadership. It is, quite simply, necessary.
Support in different shapes and sizes
Support, whether emotional or practical, is what allows you to keep showing up for the business and the people who depend on you, including yourself.
Sometimes, that support looks like therapy or community. Sometimes, it looks smaller and more immediate, like finally letting go of the admin, the inbox, the endless follow-ups that were never meant to be yours alone to carry.
At Heartworks Solution, we’ve seen this play out in a quietly beautiful way.
A founder, stretched thin between motherhood and running her business, delegates her day-to-day tasks to a Heartworks VA.
That VA (who might be a single mother herself) is someone who finally has flexible, meaningful work that fits around her own children. One woman’s relief becomes another woman’s opportunity. The circle closes quietly, and both are better for it.
You don’t have to carry everything alone. Sometimes, help looks like admitting you need it.