My wife has started her maternity leave this past week. With both of us working from home, I had the unique opportunity to follow her pregnancy very closely all day.
I was able to have the magic moments of feeling your son kicks at random moments of the day. I also saw the vomits and nausea before important meetings, the growth spur days where she needed to rest all day, and the hormonal rollercoaster of feelings. It makes sense that raising human life requires an enormous amount of energy. Still, only going through it you realize what it really means.
My wife is in a critical moment of her career, having recently restarted her journey as a UX Designer. On top of that, she is the only designer on her startup that is about to launch its product. Even being in her dream role, she sometimes would consider quitting with thoughts of not being able to handle both.
My wife has been instrumental in my career, and I felt this was the perfect time to give back. I decided to take a career break for the last 3 months of pregnancy. My new full-time job has been taking care of everything at home to let her focus only on her work and the baby.
When last week my wife's boss (a mom herself) advised her to start the maternity leave because the design work was done and she would need the rest in these 2 final weeks, I felt proud. It has been one of the most rewarding times of my life, and I'm sure it was an excellent investment for our family.
I am aware that taking a career break to help my wife's career goals is a privilege that many cannot do. For a more equal society, we need more ways to support women, such as shared paternity leaves being standard and women in leadership positions not being the exception.
#pregnancyjourney #daddydoula #internationalwomensday2021 #genderequality