PR Superhero Unleashed: Global PR Manager Takes on the Dual Role of Working Professional and New Mom

Last year, I shared my exciting news, communicating to my teams, colleagues and other Contentsquare employees that I would be going on maternity leave in January 2023. Of course, I didn’t know exactly when. I was expecting a baby girl, and that’s all of the information I had. Late in my pregnancy, I watched “Workin’ Moms” on Netflix for additional education – and comedic relief – which ended up being humorous and somewhat realistic at times. I prepped a handover document at work, had a wonderful virtual baby shower on Zoom with colleagues, and literally closed and locked up my laptop in a closet for months.

Liberating? Not quite.

What came next was more than what I could have ever imagined. When my husband and I welcomed our daughter and our world changed immediately, work was understandably one of the last things on my mind. At that moment, it became physical and mental, and mental and physical, and continued to fluctuate between the two over the course of my maternity leave. My mind and body were challenged in ways I had not yet experienced in my life. My patience levels were tested. Taking care of another human – literally – is the real deal. The daily skills I needed were extremely different from the ones I had been used to throughout my career – answering emails, drafting press releases, crafting spokespeople quotes, running meetings, and being a team player. Now, I was leading the team of “mother” with a new member in tow – my baby. Core skills included changing diapers, feeding my baby, watching her cues to make sure she napped or ate when needed, quickly cleaning toys that dropped on the floor, and of course, losing sleep. Yet while I lost countless hours of sleep in the early days (just like they tell you), it did get better as the days and weeks went on (also, just like they tell you). 

When I returned to work this past summer, it was definitely bittersweet. Brushing the figurative dust off my computer and re-logging into Gmail and Slack was familiar but different. I knew my line of work, my role, my team members and my colleagues, but I felt a little bit like I had been walking on a path and wasn’t quite sure what else had appeared on that path in the months that I had been away.

One of the key skills that’s clear about working in PR is quickly acclimating to new situations, and that’s exactly what I did and am continuing to do. It’s a new adjustment, with things like factoring in time for daycare dropoff after being a remote WFH employee for many months and eagerly waiting to receive daily photo updates of my daughter on the play mat while I work through my afternoon at my computer. Preparing bottles when I have a free moment to get ahead of the early evening dinner and bedtime rush, which I hear only gets more complicated once we enter toddlerhood and beyond! And more.

As my daughter gets older and will grow out of the baby stage, into a toddler, little kid and eventually a big kid, I hope that she learns firsthand by watching me and others, that any woman can work while also being a mother. I hope that she will see that you can juggle it all.

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