This is a repost from http://www.4womenwhowork.com for those of you who are trying to figure out how (and when – if ever) the corporate/ life of a mum can actually exist harmoniously!
#Enjoy
The reality for a woman who:
- works and
- wants to be a mum
is that at some point within our careers an alien form will demand we play host for 8.5 to 9 months.
While falling pregnant and carrying to term is a privilege it is also a lot of hard work, that for the working woman requires a whole lot of flexibility in all other areas of our life.
For instance, as we go through the physical changes associated with impending motherhood, the brutality of the birthing suite before embarking on our first day at the lifelong academy of parenting, we can step through stages of learning that range from:
- Missing my Bikini Line (The Bikini at 8 months pregnant on Bondi beach)
- Finding my Domestic Goddess (the 4am clean)
- Losing My Independence (OMG! I have to ask for grocery money)
- Oops! There goes my Dignity (pre labour – birthing suite)
- Mother: Best job in the world (holding her for the first time)
- Milk Bar, Express Pump: Mother as Vending Machine
- Adios L’Hospidale!… Now What? (Flying the Maternity Ward Nest)
- In Search of the Perfect Wrap (introducing the Lil’ Fraser Collection)
- The Art of Sleep Deprivation
- Wife of the Never Never
- Mum’s Got This… but What About Dad?
- Finding Your New Family Groove
- Balance: It’s here somewhere…
Before finally finding our way back into ourselves and a new kind of everyday cycle, with the promise of ‘normal’ sometime in the not too distant future.
I didn’t know how out of touch I really was from other women with children, until at the tender age of 40 years young, I found myself holding this beautiful little human in my arms who was completely and utterly reliant on me to thrive.
As I lay in my hospital bed, with ice packs on my Everest- sized, rock hard breasts crying my eyes out, while my mother settled my newborn daughter, one of my oldest and dearest friends entered the pitiful scene and burst out laughing: “Welcome to the club!”
Laughter (and some much needed relief) instantly filled the room, such is the roller coaster of emotions pregnancy, birth and post partum hormones deliver free of charge to every new mum.
Thankfully for sanity’s sake, partners aren’t afflicted by said hormones, beyond trying to manage the mood swings and rapid fire nature of an ever changing list of demands.
They are however, catapulted through the whirlpool of emotions without the benefit of physical experience.
IMHO us women are used to a flurry of hormones impacting our current state of well being willy-nilly.
Accordingly, we’re able to ‘go with the flow’ more readily knowing we aren’t the master of our schedules 110% of the time.
And more often than not, can identify when and as a hormonal wave is happening, even while having little to no control over it.
Our male partners however, haven’t had the luxury of learning from personal experience, that we can be irate and irrational one minute (while our hormones are a flurry) only to recover to our usual grace and poise (without lingering on the ‘what just happened’) and move forward as though nothing had happened next.
What they may call ‘psycho’ or mood swings, we consider the norm! 🙂
I think it is the absence of this refined and elegant skill set that can send our more masculine halves into a tail spin on stepping outside the nurturing womb of the maternity ward.
It is for this reason, I decided to build a digital sanctuary 4WomenWhoWork: a place where women can retreat for knowledge sharing with a view to accessing important reassurances in line with the pursuit of Master Juggler, which might include:
- You’re not the only person who feels, sounds, looks like this …
- Completely understand where you’re coming from!
There’s only two rules for our community:
- Keep it real (no pseudo Superwomen allowed); and
- Be willing to share but also to listen; as knowledge sharing will enable us access and learn how to deal with the ‘opportunities’ and life challenges presented by being Women Who Work.
How it works: if you’d like to find out more or sign up for our newsletter complete and submit the form below:
And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter: @4WomenWhoWork and talk with us using #4WWW
Until next time: Keep safe, smile and know you’re awesome just as you are…this L-plate parenting gig is a tough one! 😀
L-Plate Parenting 
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