5 good reasons for maternity coachings
When my first child was born, returning to work as a management consultant was so unthinkable for me that I changed jobs. I had the feeling that the world of management consulting and my desire for a family simply didn't fit together and I wouldn't have known how to even attempt to work it out together with my boss.
Today I know that many job profiles are potentially suitable for working mothers. Is it always easy? No! It requires flexible working concepts to reconcile family and career. And it requires open discussions about what is changing and what both sides now need. These adjustments to your cooperation are possible. And above all, they are a way of retaining female specialists and managers.
Looking back, I wish I had had a maternity coach at my side. Here are 5 reasons why:
1. clarity and structure
A maternity coach would have helped me to gain clarity about my professional and personal goals during pregnancy and after the birth. The support in creating a structured plan for returning to work would have been invaluable. Today, I experience daily in my coaching sessions or in my own life how inner clarity leads to more clarity on the outside. Often a game changer for me.
2. self-confidence and motivation
The transition to working life as a mother created a lot of insecurities for me. A coach would have given me the self-confidence not to lose sight of my career goals despite the new challenges and would have motivated me to go my own way. Today, I often think that no one could have given me the role of “part-time mom” if I had demanded something different for myself.
3. helpful time planning
Balancing work and family life is no easy task. A maternity coach would have given me valuable strategies and tools to plan and prioritize my time effectively. We don't have to become efficiency machines, but sometimes there are simple and pragmatic ways to make things easier.
4. support and understanding
Sometimes it is reassuring to know that you are not alone. A coach who has experience of balancing career and family would have offered me support and understanding in difficult moments. When my children were very small, there were times when I was simply overwhelmed with all the tasks. The work with children and job would not have become any less because of this but understanding that this struggle is real for many parents - that would probably have taken some of the pressure off me.
5. shaping the change process
Maternity coaching would have helped me to be understand that I don't have to solve the issue of reconciling family and career on my own. In fact, in all maternity coaching sessions, I advise my clients to shape this process together in an open exchange at an early stage. Many women who work in ambitious careers are under a lot of pressure because their working environment is used to their unlimited availability. With a small baby, this is no longer so easy to achieve. And at the same time, a lot can be made possible with a jointly designed working model. It requires a lot of transparency and honest interaction for both sides. Uncertainties also arise on the company side when women return from parental leave. This process is extremely important for everyone involved.
Maternity coaching is not a universal remedy. The daily balancing act between family and career is enormously challenging for parents. Even coaching won't make this go away. For companies, the possibility of women not returning to work at all represents a high risk. Statistics show that important resources can be lost much more easily during the transitional period after parental leave.
Through my work as a maternity coach, however, I am experiencing that clarity is emerging about what is needed. That a sensitization for needs, for goals, for boundaries and, above all, for a jointly developed working model becomes possible. That's quite a lot and definitely a lot more than if it remains untried.
That would have helped me!
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