Lori DeBoer offers marketing, editing and ghostwriting services; visit her at www.lorideboer.com
THE CHANGING DYNAMICS OF PREGNANCY AND MATERNITY LEAVE When Katie Hanke, Denver, was pregnant with her first child, she worked right up until the day she went into labor. ?I feel like I had to do that, because you do not get your maternity leave or your vacation leave all at once. . . .you are gathering themup into a bucket.? She says she wishes that she could have stopped working when she was eight months along ?and not have to worry about the time afterwards.? She added: ?I think that what goes through your head is, what if your water breaks? Can you even performyour duties, because your mind is in a different space.? She considers herself fortunate, because she was able to take 12 weeks of maternity leave and her boss approved her coming back as a part-time employee. ?That was more doable,? she says.
4 thewomenofdenver.com
Brandie Koskie, Lakewood, also considers herself fortunate, because she was working at a startup when she got pregnant and the male owners were ?incredibly supportive.? They offered to pay her for a six-week maternity leave, though they said she could take as much time as she wanted. In fact, at one point, when she tried working during her maternity leave, they told her they would change her passwords if they saw her working online again. Koskie says the fact that they were proactive made her experience of early motherhood less stressful. ?Before they came to me, I really did have a lot of anxiety about what was happening; I couldn?t really afford to take a maternity leave.?
4
Tara Tubb, Arvada, had her first child when she was in graduate school, working two part-time jobs, and didn?t have any benefits. With her second child, she was working for the city and took the job when she was pregnant. She was able to take six weeks of short-termdisability and, since she was slated to return in December, her supervisor used her discretion to give her more time off during the slow season, allowing her to work fromhome. While her new workplace was accommodating, she said that if she and her ex-husband had both had more time off for child care, things would have been less stressful. ?I have a friend who lives in Germany and she had twins last February and she is just now going back to work. Part of me wishes that I would have had the opportunity to do that. I really love working but would have liked that option.?
