What is one piece of advice you wish you could offer your former expectant self?

Work together to make sure everything isn’t falling on one person.

FOR MOMS: If you breastfed, was there a place for you to pump that met your needs and was conducive to your success? If you breastfed, how did you decide to continue? FOR DADS: What, if any, adjustments did you (or your workplace) make to your schedule after having a baby? Was it specific to your manager or larger, whole work culture?

I wanted to exclusively breastfeed, knowing that was what was best for my baby and myself. However, supply issues with my first led to mixed feeding with mostly formula after a few months. My second is 5 months old and is starting to get more and more formula.

How much leave did you take, and how comfortable were you taking it?

I was on leave for 4 months both times. I was sad to leave my babies at daycare, but excited about returning to work because I like my job.

What was your biggest challenge going back to work?

For my first child, I was worried about finding a good daycare, and also worried about trying to catch up on what happened while I was gone. For my second child, I didn’t have to worry about daycare because we already had one. However, I was concerned about catching up with work because there were a lot of staffing changes that occurred while I was on leave and I was worried that I would be asked to take on a different role. (However, that did not end up being an issue.)

Fill in the blanks: As a working parent, I never expected ____ would be so hard and ____ would be so much easier!

Exactly how difficult it would be to juggle being a mom and working.

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