A Personal Note to New Mums

My journey as a new mum began last year, on the beautiful day of 10th March 2017. My fresh memories still take me to that room, where just a year back the doctor had handed me over the most beautiful gift of my life – my daughter! It was a day of rebirth, for me as a person, as a professional – had worn several hats in life but this was the most beautiful and challenging too… After two months of babybirth and sleepless nights, I joined work. A new mum at work, I was worried, anxious and determined too! No matter how much people around talked about women quitting their work after maternity, I didn’t want to give up one of the most important roles that I played in life – an HR enthusiast. It’s been a year and I have led this journey of managing a baby and a demanding role at work by learning, unlearning and relearning. A month back I celebrated my baby’s first birthday, and won many compliments from guests for having carried on with my job and given time to my little one. Most of them had quit theirs after baby birth. This made me reflect on things I did to balance the two most demanding roles of my life and I want to share them with all you new mums at work…

1. Patience is the key – Once you join work after maternity, remember you are not the same person any more. You have gone through days and months of emotional ups and downs and your body too has experienced a world of changes. So expecting yourself to have the same aggressive, go-getter approach will only end you in getting more frustrated. You have a tiny little soul to take care of, feed every two hours and you may have had sleepless nights… Patience comes in handy, when you take one day at a time

2. Planning your day ahead – The more you plan, the more you will fail in implementing that because you can plan your work and work hours, but you cannot plan when will the baby cry and when will the baby poop. Even if you have a maid and your mother/ mother in law to help you, you cannot ignore your baby…and you should not! After all, you decided to have the baby and not your maid :P But keep the fight on, keep planning and changing plans as your move forward

3. Post Natal Depression is a Reality – This is nothing serious but if you have worked too hard in managing the baby, not given yourself enough care and attention then you may end up having an imbalance of emotions – kick of joy and feeling miserably low in few minutes. The best way to deal with this is to talk, talk and talk…talk to your husband, family members, friends and peers…about life, about how you feel and make sure you do deep breathing a few mins everyday or every time you feel your pulse racing high

4. Perseverance – You have heard this term before and you more or less understand the meaning if this. But you really really have to persevere once you return to your workplace after maternity. There may be thousands of times when you will have to cut a sorry face, miss your meetings, not be able to attend offsite training programs You may feel isolated and lost many a times but the key lies in not giving up. Wake up every morning with the thought ‘ Today is a new day’…

5. Pause – You may have clicked this button several times on your gadgets, but motherhood may require you clicking this in your daily life. Pause, when you feel overwhelmed and come back after you have refreshed yourself, after making a call to your ‘mom’ or after looking at those selfies you have taken with your ‘little one’

6. Perform – In the middle of all the chaos, confusion, joy, excitement and frustration don’t forget the purpose of your life – Perform and Smile!

Feel free to share your experience with me or reach out me if you want to chat :)