If You’re Professionally Successful, Being a New Mom is Harder
Here’s the truth: mothers need to be protected and sequestered from general social rhythms to most properly nourish their newborns. Having such a distance between yourself and the working world is a lot more of a luxury in 2022 than it used to be. Many mothers work from home, or are freelancers, and have no choice but to keep working soon after giving birth.
This is not ideal. However, that doesn’t mean it represents an insurmountable difficulty for the professional mom. It just means you’re going to need to think things out and plan in advance a little more than you would otherwise in order to achieve your ideal work-life balance. We’ll explore a few tips to help you do that here.
1. Find a Support Network for Daycare Needs
Parental support networks can help you find safe daycare options you trust, and which even provide care for newborns. Now, this isn’t ideal; newborns need their mothers. It is an option in a pinch, though. Something you may want to do is find such daycare facilities in advance, and put their contact info in a little parental “black book”.
You can also lean on friends or family, and you’ll want to have relationships with such people for when the time comes. However, don’t put all your eggs in this basket. As the old saying goes, it’s better a friend that’s near than a sister that’s far. Better a daycare that’s available than a family who is out of town.
2. Get Remote Medical Help For Breastfeeding, Etc.
Injury to paps may result in a nipple injury scar; especially if your newborn comes into the world with a tooth or two—which happens more than you may expect. Also, you’ve got things like breastmilk expression, lack of production, and milk duct clogs which could happen. Be sure you’ve got breastfeeding experts available when you need them.
3. Advice From Friends and Family, Schedule Around the Baby
Friends or family aren’t just resources for daycare, they’re founts of knowledge. That is, if they have themselves become parents before. They remember what it was like when they were new to parenthood. They remember their mistakes, and the little tricks they learned to overcome common issues. Tap into that fount of knowledge and apply it to your situation.
One thing you may well be told is that your baby’s hunger doesn’t care about your professional schedule. You’ll have more success learning the rhythms of your newborn, and working with them. Then, you will be trying to alter how your child feels hunger, discomfort, or other things that preempt a fit. By around the 6-month mark, this changes.
4. Finding Your Stride as a New Professional Mom
Work with friends and family for advice and emergency daycare. Also, find traditional daycare options. Alter your schedule for the child’s sake, don’t try and push them into your mould until at least the 6-month mark. Get remote help for breastfeeding and other maternal needs. Altogether, steps like these will help you balance your career and motherhood.
