‘The soaring double standards and unrealistic expectations faced by women go turbo when you throw expectant motherhood into the mix’
Last week, I set out to write a piece debunking the common myths about pregnant women and work. Years of hearing background chatter about women “slacking” by attending hospital appointments, or “taking advantage” of maternity packages have left me fiercely defensive, so when I became pregnant, I was determined to be none of those so-called “cliches”. I took on more work than ever before, seeing my impending leave as a glaring deadline, a line by which I had to have achieved everything I possibly could. I continued my life as it was before, no cutting back, no allowances, no apologies. I am still me, I thought fiercely, I don’t need special treatment.
Then something flipped. Staring at my screen, trying to make the article come together and make some vague kind of sense, I realised that I was struggling. I was making no allowances for the fact that my body and mind needed more rest than it did before. The article I was trying to write did raise some important issues about some of the eye rolling and unfair criticism often levelled at pregnant women. I wanted to say that we’re still the same people, with the same skills and talents – don’t assume we’re all struck down with “baby brain”, devoid of ambition and incapable of rational thought. What I had failed to do however, was to acknowledge and silence the voice in my own head, constantly niggling me into chasing the biggest myth of them all: having it all.
Continue reading...from Pregnancy | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1O1qVFY
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