Why getting pregnant is the best thing I ever did for my career .
by Jenn Hardy on Dec 09 at 6:00 am
One of the first things my friend Kathe Lieber said to me when we met was, “Getting pregnant was the best thing I could have done for my career.”
I didn’t really get it, but I didn’t question her either. Only a few months would pass before I could say the same thing.
I had been working for myself as a freelancer for a few short months before I was awarded the first place Features Writing Award from the Professional Writers Association of Canada.
Aside from the prize money and recognition, I was thrilled that I won the award for writing about Permaculture, a subject I am passionate about for a magazine I really respect. I could have ridden the wave of happiness for months to come.
Three days after returning home to Montreal from the awards ceremony in Toronto, I discovered I was pregnant. It was strange timing indeed. But it turned out, for me, as for Kathe, to be a very good career move.
Not many people who work office jobs can say the same thing! Frustrated employers are sometimes not as understanding as they pretend to be, which can cause anxiety for some mamas-to-be. I’ve had a couple of friends who were laid off during their mat leave.
Nine months is a long time to sit around and wait, so of course I got to work right away. As a freelancer living in Quebec, I would be lucky enough to get some maternity leave and the more money I made in 2010, the more leave I would get.
My dad jokes that I begun exploiting his granddaughter in-utero because of the volume of articles I wrote about her and about pregnancy over the course nine months. All of a sudden I had a whole new market to sell my work to.
In doing my own personal research in preparation for become a mom, I was learning about the fascinating world of pregnancy, birth and parenting. These subjects affect most people over their lifetime, so was always a magazine or website to be published in.
I started my own blog on the subject and toyed around with social media like a Facebook page and can be followed on Twitter @mama_naturale. My plan is, in the upcoming months to have enough of a readership to sell ads on mamanaturale.ca. Cha ching!
After the baby’s birth, I would look at Kathe’s reasons for declaring that her little girl was a smart career move. She told me:
“I culled my client list, took three months off, and returned part-time, working only for the people who were professional, pleasant and prompt paying.” She said it also forced her not to do anything at the last minute.
“Once you have a baby you don’t know if you’ll be up all night, for instance, so you finish things the day before the deadline.”
Oh dear baby girl, you have brought me happiness, love, self-discipline and a thriving writing career. Don’t worry, I’ve already set up your college fund.
Share