5SR - June 29, 2023

Jessica is an ICF-certified executive coach who helps high-performing women and working parents lead more successful and satisfying lives. She's also college professor, psychotherapist, mediator, and mom of two grade school kids. Check out her newsletter A Cup of Ambition, about the nuances of working motherhood.

States With Abortion Bans Are Losing A Generation Of OBGYNs (Wired)

The reversal of Roe will have wide-ranging and devastating consequences—not just for people seeking to terminate their pregnancies—but for all women.

Almost 45% of accredited ob-gyn residency program in the US operate in states in which there is an abortion ban, and there has been a 10% decrease in the number of applicants to these programs since the Dobbs decision. This article is well worth a complete read—it details the competing mandates of state law and accreditation standards, the perspectives of current medical trainees, and the serious consequences of having a generation of ob-gyns who cannot provide full reproductive care to patients.

The Untapped Potential Of Job Sharing (A Cup of Ambition) 

A few years ago, when a European friend of mine mentioned that she was going to “job share”, I was intrigued. Part of me figured it must be one of those magical things that only happen in Scandinavia—like being able to build IKEA furniture without flying into a fit of rage or actually having a functioning social safety net 😏. But, in fact, job sharing is happening here in the US and it could very well be part of the solution to keeping high-achieving working moms in the workplace.

I interviewed Melissa Nicholson, the CEO of Work Muse, a job sharing consultancy service. She shared all sorts of gems, including what exactly job sharing is, who it's suited for, how it's structured, and how to secure organizational buy-in.

The Graduation Speech We Should Be Giving To Parents (Washington Post)

I’ve spent almost all of my career in higher education and, thus, have experienced more than my fair share of first-year orientations. However, in the fall of 2015 I was wearing a slightly different lens. I had just returned from maternity leave and entrusted my 12-week-old son to the care of a non-family member for the very first time. Our sitter was experienced and responsible, but frankly still a stranger at that point. I was feeling worried, sad, and incredibly vulnerable.

I was standing in the back of a reception for new students, checking my phone yet again for updates, when I looked up and realized that every single parent in the room was feeling the same thing I was feeling. Except those feelings of vulnerability were amplified, because they weren’t just leaving for a nine-hour workday; they were launching their kids into adulthood.

Since that moment, I’ve thought periodically about what it will be like when my time comes around. How will I handle launching my future 18-year-old into the world? What will it be like to return to our house and live as a family of three? What will it be like three years later when they’re both gone and my active parenting years are over?

My sense is that the majority of my readers aren’t parenting teens (yet), but I still think this is a very relevant read and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

What Employers Can Do To Make Childbirth Safer In The U.S. (Harvard Business Review) 

When I see articles like this published in outlets like HBR, I am hopeful that we’re making progress. The author, Dr. Jeff Levin-Sherz, calls on employers—who pay for more than half of deliveries in the US—to demand accountability for health plans for maternal and infant outcomes. Some concrete recommendations include:

• Improving benefits to cover doula and midwife care, postpartum mental health support, and virtual care and coaching.

• Providing information about hospital quality of care, including C-section rates for low-risk women.

• Providing accurate and timely reporting on the quality of care provided to employees and their dependents.

The First Baby I Loved (The Cut)

This is a heartbreaking and beautiful essay about motherhood. Due to a medical issue, the author and her husband were unable to have biological children and decided to adopt. They were all set to adopt an infant, but shortly after the baby was born their joy became much more fraught when they learned the baby had been born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

The article details their painful decision to decline the adoption and their successful subsequent adoption of a healthy daughter.

As the author recounts: "The other day I finally told [my daughter] the story of the first baby. 'So you could have been someone else’s parents?' she asked, her eyes big and curious. 'Is it bad that I’m glad you said no?' The truth is that of course it was the right decision for us. For our family. The other truth is that we don’t know if it was the right decision for the first baby. That’s the part that haunts me. The part that makes me think of her every year her birthday comes around. 'It isn’t bad,' I tell her, lifting her gangly preteen body onto my lap. 'It’s okay to be happy we ended up where we are, and also feel a little sad how it happened. That’s how I feel too.'5SR -