Early Motherhood in a Majority Male Professional World

One thing I didn’t grasp from all my reading was that first trimester pregnancy can take the life out of you. I pride myself in being a very productive person, but pregnancy cut down my productivity by greater than half. For several weeks I had to adjust to living all day every day feeling horribly sick and unreasonably exhausted. I got done what little I absolutely had to, then resigned to sleeping long hours, vegging out watching Netflix, or if I was unusually alert, reading through book #3 of the Game of Thrones series A Song of Ice and Fire.

Even now at the end of my first trimester, I’m feeling more myself, but nausea still comes and goes. Increasingly common afternoon or early evening naps are my new reality. But I am feeling more energized, which means I get to catch up on things that I should have done a month or two ago that got pushed to the bottom of the to-do list, including write in this blog. It’s quite embarrassing digging up tasks and topics from early April when the symptoms began, but better late than never.

Entering this new stage of my life, I now wish that maternal issues would be discussed more openly in our culture. It seems that we largely ignore maternity unless we are directly impacted by it. I’m guilty of this as well. Although I’ve wanted children for years in an undefined future time, I didn’t pay much attention to it until now when my circumstances changed.

I hesitated to professionally announce my pregnancy. I didn’t know if I would be taken less seriously as a professional woman. I’m female and I have the blessing/curse of looking younger than my years which leads to the constant struggle to be heard and respected, a problem which plagued me in previous jobs. So far, everyone I’ve told has been very supportive and excited for me. In the months and years to come, I’ll remain the same intelligent, competent professional I am now and will hopefully continue to grow in my roles. But will I be respected when I’m bulging 8 months pregnant or when I have a crying infant to care for?

I spent all breakfast this morning thinking of all of the strong, successful women who I personally know and look up to in my industry. The vast majority of them are childless. A few are mothers to grown children. After a long while, I could only think of two – yes, two – mother role models in my profession who have children at home. Shocked at the rarity, I instantly wrote them appreciative notes. It’s hard enough to be a woman in a male-dominated industry, but to be a woman who is also a mother to young ones, and to still be successful – hats off to you!

Surprisingly, not many of my female peers are mothers, though there are a few. The importance of supporting not only young females in my field, but young female mothers especially has become apparent to me. Outside of my professional circles, I only have to look toward my own mom as a role model of a strong, successful mother. The feminist ideals I was raised with as a child had a huge impact on my successes in life. I hope to raise my children (boys as well as girls) with these same ideals.

Thank you to all of the strong, successful professional mothers out there who pave the way for future generations to follow the paths you carved out first!