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Pregnant at the Office: Managing Stress for Working Moms-to-Be

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

12-1p.m. EST

Katie Bugbee Senior Managing Editor & Global Parenting Expert, Care.com

Anne Weisberg

Senior VP of Strategy, Families and Work Institute

Dr. Malissa Wood Co-Director of the Women’s Heart Health Program, Massachusetts General Hospital

Julia Wang

Site Director, The Bump

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Katie Bugbee Senior Managing Editor & Global Parenting Expert, Care.com

As the Global Parenting Expert and Senior Managing Editor at Care.com, Katie Herrick Bugbee focuses on providing supportive content for parents, caregivers and pet-owners. As a mom of three small children, Katie connects to these topics and works diligently to provide the best advice and resources for Care.com readers. An established child care and parenting expert, Katie has contributed to an array of premier print and online outlets, including Huffington Post, Newsday, Parenting Magazine, Pregnancy & Newborn, Babble, SheKnows, and Working Mother. Katie came to Care.com from a series of print and online magazines. Her background includes editorial gigs at Nick Jr. Family Magazine, Seventeen, TheKnot.com, The Nest Magazine, WholeLiving.com and BobVila.com. A celebrity-junkie, Katie also spent numerous nights covering red-carpet events for Us Weekly. Katie holds a B.A. from Boston College and lives in Newton, Massachusetts with her family.

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Anne Weisberg Senior VP of Strategy, Families and Work Institute

Senior Vice President at the Families and Work Institute, a non-profit, nonpartisan institute. Our mission is to do research to work, learn and live by. A few highlights from my career: • Mass Career Customization: Aligning the Workplace with

Today’s Nontraditional Workforce (Harvard Press, 2007) • Everything A Working Mother Needs to Know (Doubleday,

1994) • Director of Diversity and Inclusion, BlackRock • Director, Talent Strategy, Deloitte • Senior Director, Advisory Services, Catalyst

Anne received her Bachelor of Science from the University of California-Berkeley, and her JD from Harvard Law School. She and her husband live in New York and have 5 children between them.

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Dr. Malissa Wood Co-Director of the Women’s Heart Health Program, Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Wood completed her undergraduate and medical degrees in the combined B.A/M.D (Biology) program from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1987. She completed her internship and residency in medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts in 1990. She served as Chief Medical Resident from 1990-1991. Her cardiology training was performed at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center from1991-1994. She completed an interventional cardiology fellowship at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio from 1994-1995. Dr. Wood’s current clinical activities include co-directing the Women’s Heart Health Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, serving as Director of the Corrigan Fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease in Women, and working as an echocardiographer in the Cardiac Ultrasound Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital. In order to improve the clinical care of women and the understanding of cardiovascular disease in women, Dr. Wood designed and implemented the Corrigan Women’s Heart Health Program in 2007. This clinical model includes the development of individualized care plans for women at risk for or who are suffering from cardiovascular disease and development of research and educational components to better understand these conditions and share this information with practicing physicians.

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Julia Wang Site Director, The Bump

As Site Director of TheBump.com, Julia Wang is responsible for overseeing the editorial team, developing compelling celebrity and real people stories, and creating strategy and high-profile franchises for the brand. Prior to joining The Bump in October 2014, Julia served as People.com’s first features director developing and overseeing editorial strategy and content, including its high-traffic franchises Sexiest Man Alive and World’s Most Beautiful. She successfully launched the TV, Country and Royals verticals and oversaw the live coverage of Prince William and Princess Kate’s royal wedding, which helped People.com surpass 1.1 billion page views for April 2011—a first for any Time Inc. digital title. Julia covered the next life stage for the royals, the birth of Prince George, and continues her coverage at The Bump with the arrival of the second royal baby this spring. Julia lives in Forest Hills, New York, with her husband and two children.

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The Announcement: What’s the Best Approach?

For Moms-to-Be

• Don’t: Tell your boss in passing • Do: Set up a meeting or lunch with

privacy

• Formalize agreed upon arrangements in writing, and send to your HR department too

• Be mindful of what you share on social media!

• Plan to tell your supervisor before your coworkers

• Recommended to share the news early in second trimester

For Employers

• Support and congratulate before getting into logistics

• Showing concern and anxiety could set the stage for an uncomfortable transition

• Ensure the employee knows the maternity leave policies upfront

• Work on a transition plan together

• Important to make reasonable accommodations and ensure Pregnancy Discrimination Act compliance

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How can Employees Set the Tone for a Healthy Pregnancy?

• Set expectations with your manager, and gauge if you can have flexibility during higher

stress times

• Demonstrate that your health and your baby’s health is top priority, but it won’t interfere with your work whenever possible

• Keep active! Physical activity keeps both mom and baby healthy

• Avoid eating/drinking foods/drinks high in fat, sodium and caffeine

• Do: Focus on the positive effects of your pregnancy

• Don’t: Dwell on potential downsides, such as weight gain and morning sickness

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What are Easy Office Exercises for Expecting Employees?

• Take the stairs instead of the elevator

• Make sure to get up and walk around every few

hours

• Stretch - alleviate fatigue & boost productivity

• Form a walking group or yoga group at lunch

• Use an exercise ball to sit and stretch at your desk if possible!

Read More from The Bump: How To Fit Prenatal Exercise Into Your Busy

Schedule

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What are Leading Employers Doing to Support Moms-to-Be?

Culture of Celebration and Support

•Baby shower for expecting employees or baby baskets with information on policies and resources •Providing extra flexibility in work hours and location • Lend a helping hand and check in more often

Benefits and Leave •Offering family friendly benefits such as child care and backup care •Providing robust leave and return packages: Vodafone pays new mothers full pay for 30 hours/week upon

return for 6 months during the adjustment •Onsite help: Goldman Sachs offers an onsite expectant parent coordinator through their EAP program

Resources and Tools • Maternity leave toolkit, full of all necessary forms, information about leave policy, insurance and

benefits available • Create an expectant parent section on the company intranet which houses articles, policy and resources

for easy access • Leverage your own employees: Encourage or champion the formation of expectant parent and new

parent groups

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What Trends have Emerged around Parental Leave?

• 90% of today’s working fathers feel it’s important for employers to provide paid paternity leave*

• Less than 10% of expectant mothers have access to fully paid paternity leave, according to the 2014

National Study of Employers compiled by SHRM and the Families and Work Institute • The U.S. lags well behind other developed nations when it comes to paid leave – We ranked last in government-supported time off for new parents**

• Some employees have 12 weeks of unpaid leave after the birth/adoption of a new child through FMLA

• Only 14% of workplaces offer paid paternity leave*

Employee Tip: Structure your leave so that both partners feel equally

responsible for the child’s care. Research shows that fathers’ involvement at the

early stages is critical in the relationship between father and child, AND father

and mother.

*Boston College, The New Dad, 2014 **A review of 38 nations by the Pew Research Center

Graph from: Families and Work Institute’s 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce

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•Putting in long hours and trying to balance work and home life

•Worrying about being laid off while on leave •Frequent appointments interrupting the work day •Dealing with morning sickness at work •Feeling a general stress and sense of worry

Employee Stressors

•Eat a healthy diet: crucial for you, and baby – pack lots of snacks and meal packs for work

•Lie on your side for at least 8 hours a day •Seek and accept help from others, at work and home •Practice prenatal yoga or treat yourself to a massage •Enjoy simple pleasures: Take time out to take a bubble

bath, read a book, or watch a movie

De-Stress Techniques

How Can Workplace Stressors be Combatted?

"There is more to life than increasing its speed." ~Mohandas K. Gandhi

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What’s Your Contingency Plan?

• Work with your team at work to have a

support system in place if you need to take time unexpectedly

• Put a priority on communication from the get-go, with everyone involved

• List out your routine duties, roles and responsibilities and cross-functional contacts

• Create a central file location where your team/replacement can save all work and create a project update document for you to reference when you return

• Let your team know they can contact you in case of an emergency – that you still want to be abreast of any urgent matters

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The Leave Transition: What’s the Best Way to Establish a Plan?

For Moms-to-Be: • Determine how much time you will take on

leave, and whether you plan on a part time or flex schedule when you return

• Communicate your plan to your supervisor clearly in writing

• Identify and train a replacement, and leave detailed instructions along with your contact info

• Set up your support team at home: leverage help from friends and family

• Get on the same page as your partner about leave times, and responsibilities – Make a chart or calendar to keep track

• Consider hiring a nurse, housekeeper or dog walker when you’re busy with new baby

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The Leave Transition: What’s the Best Way to Establish a Plan?

For Employers: • Ensure regular check-ins with the employee, and maintain an open

door policy for any questions or concerns they may have about a leave plan

• Work with the employee on refining/fine-tuning a leave plan, containing documents of open projects and roles/responsibilities; cross functional and vendor contacts; and personal contact information

• Save all documentation in a shared location/drive

• Communication is key: Inform the broader team of the leave plan and make yourself available for their questions or concerns

• Make sure you and the employee are on the same page about transitioning back: what date are they returning, and on what terms?

• People over processes: Show your enthusiasm and celebrate this life change with the employee; show you value them as a person beyond their work life

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Don’t forget to check out our Workplace Solutions Blog!

workplace.care.com

Some of our latest posts: 7 Ways HR Can Reduce Workplace Stress for Pregnant Employees 11 Ways to Prevent Burnout at Work 5 Ways Your Meeting Culture is Killing Productivity What Working Moms-to-Be Need to Know About Managing Stress at Work 30 Ways to De-Stress Your Workplace in 30 Days

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