I found this great blog post by a self-proclaimed “girl geek.” She talks about the very real circumstance of being a mom of multiple children and holding a corporate job.

As a geek, she had some good jobs at tech companies.

“Many of these companies have been offering flexible working, working from home, childcare vouchers, on site childcare and return to work support but still can’t manage to get their female staff to return.” (more…)

As I’ve been going about in the virtual and real world, talking to women about their career and pregnancy experience, I’m surprised to discover that pregnant women don’t talk much about their jobs.

Or maybe it’s that working women don’t talk much about their pregnancy. (more…)

During an interview with Carrie Sharpe, a couples communications consultant, we were talking about what a couple can talk about to prepare for the arrival of a child.

Carrie has five children, and is a beautiful, sane woman. For this obvious reason and many others, she is a world-class expert on parenting.

She raised the point that there are so many things you can’t plan for.

Boy, is that true.

There are so many, overwhelmingly many, things you can’t predict. You can’t plan for the flu. You cant plan for premature birth, to name a few.

I know I can be paralyzed when I think about it. All the things that will go wrong!

And my way of snapping out of it is to take care of what I *can* predict. There are a lot of things that are predictable.

So, in the corporate stategy language, all those unpredictable things are the known unknowns. We KNOW crazy will happen, but we don’t know when or where.

The Known Knowns, those are the stuff we know we know. That’s comforting. I know baby will arrive. I know I can’t work when baby arrives.

Let’s start the plan around that. And then when the crazy hits, I’ll have more room to handle it because the other things are handled.

It’s hard for me to ask for accommodation. I always want to muscle through. Oh my gosh! I will muscle my way through a lot of dumb stuff.

When I was pregnant, I finally gave myself a little permissions to ask for help. At least, when it came to lifting heavy things.

I just found this lovely site: https://www.pregnantatwork.org/

They have 6 tips on kinds of accommodations for pregnant women

• Sitting, instead of standing, during the workday
• Carrying a water bottle
• Taking more frequent breaks to use the restroom, to have a snack, or to rest
• Receiving assistance with heavy lifting
• Working a modified or part time schedule
• Taking leave

Sometimes it helps to know what is on the menu of choices. I see women ask what they have to do in their workplace when they are pregnant. So many times, women ask from fear. What is allowed? Is it ok?

You are allowed to take care of yourself. It’s always ok.

I’ve talked a bit before about what being Professional means. And how a pregnant professional naturally flows from being a professional.

But here at the pregnant professional, we are not just anything. This curriculum and program is not about being merely. Yes, it’s about handling a very common occurance. Women do have children rather frequently, in the scope of the world.

But this group is not about ordinary. If we wanted to do ordinary, we would do what everyone else does.

Everyone else asks their coworkers, and trusts what HR tells them. They ask in the bathroom and from their friends. That’s ordinary. And it works ok. Certainly it’s what has been done for a long time.

However, for the ambitious Pregnant professional tribe, the common and good enough is not good enough. We are uncommon. We didn’t work this hard, we didn’t explore all the options and lift every rock in our lives to GIVE UP when it comes to pregnancy.

There are best practices. Even if we have to discover them.

I am drafting a manifesto for what exactly this tribe is.

Under no circumstances are we ordinary. That’s the beginning.