Motherhood mirrors career growth for new mom | Jul 01st 2006
By Jacqueline Dooley
It’s fairly obvious motherhood can be a major obstacle in a woman’s career path, particularly new motherhood. Even the most uneventful pregnancies — the ones where you’re able to work to near full-capacity for the entire 9 months — are followed by a blissful and all-too-short hiatus known as maternity leave. When things go wrong either during pregnancy, or afterward, the effect on career growth can be detrimental.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal’s CareerJournal.com states controlling stress during pregnancy is becoming a top concern for women and health-care providers. Stress increases the likelihood of preterm births and low birth weight.
So, ladies, the reality is we do need to slow down no matter how fast we’d like to scramble up the corporate ladder with baby in tow.
I’ve had the opportunity to experience two pregnancies during two very different points in my career. I was working full time at an agency during my first pregnancy; accustomed to working long days and juggling a massive workload. I did not believe for one second I would need to slow down during or after my pregnancy. Let me state for the record this was an extremely naive assumption.
I was self-employed during my second pregnancy and fully engaged in growing my consultancy business. This time I knew I’d need to slow down, my pregnancy would affect the growth of my business and having a new baby would stall my business’ growth for a while, likely a long while.
Then, during the sixth month of my pregnancy, I learned my baby would be born with a major birth defect — cleft lip and palate. My husband and I knew the work involved with a new baby, but we had no idea what was in store for us with a baby who had special needs and would require two major surgeries by the age of 1.
Reaching a standstill
The combination of having a toddler and a newborn who needed a lot of medical attention for the first year of her life equated to one major reality — the growth of my business not only slowed, it stopped.
Luckily, it did not disappear altogether. I worked about 15-20 hours a week during my younger daughter’s first year, but I paid very little attention to my business.
It’s interesting to me how both my full-time career path and my home-based business growth were similarly affected by pregnancy and new motherhood. Because I experienced two very different work scenarios during my pregnancies, I was really able to see how the stages of my career mimicked the stages of motherhood in both instances.
New motherhood is a time of great joy and even greater work. Add to that lack of sleep, and the very strong maternal pull to want to be with the baby at all times, and you can see how work may become secondary.
When my youngest daughter was 1 and had recovered from her second surgery and my older daughter was 4 and attending preschool three days a week, my husband and I decided it was time for me to focus on my business full time again.
My kids are now 2 and 5, and growing more independent each day. My older daughter will start kindergarten in the fall. The little one is progressing wonderfully since her surgery in April 2005. She’ll be starting day care two days a week in July.
Perhaps not coincidentally, I just signed on with three new clients. All my babies are growing up.
–
This article was published in the Poughkeepsie Journal on Saturday, July 1st, 2006.