As part of YWLC’s flagship Milestones and Transitions initiative, we focused on mothers and aspiring mothers in this year’s iteration, to discuss the challenges and joy accompanying the transition to motherhood. From balancing motherhood with one’s career, family, social circle, hobbies, self-identity, and thriving in the new cadence, YWLC’s panel of mothers shared their ups and downs with new mums and aspiring mums in a candid panel discussion.
Our speakers comprised Nurul Jihadah Hussain (Founder, The Codette Project), Sher-li Torrey (Founder, Mums@Work Singapore) along with two of our own YWLC members, Deborah Hendricks (Business Development, Standard Chartered Bank), and Alicia Lee (Digital Business Analyst (Service Design), Govtech), and the panel was moderated by YWLC member Cheo Pei Rong.
Some key takeaways from the event include:
- Everyone’s pregnancy and motherhood journey is different. Take advice (while many are well intended) with a pinch of salt and do what works for you
- Whether an experience is a sacrifice, loss, or growth is dependent on your perception. We have the choice to choose the lens we see these experiences from
- Parenthood partnership: Team up with your partner and making your partnership a real and healthy one in all aspect of parenting!
- Don’t shortchange yourself if you choose to caregive full time. Society doesn’t acknowledge the value of caregiving, but many leaders have said that their wives who took a step back from their careers to allow them to focus on work are the real MVPs
- Bring your baby to work! While your colleagues are able to see you being pregnant, they may forget and assume you are back to “normal” when you return from maternity. However, the reality is that your life has fundamentally changed – there is a tiny human who you are looking after alongside your work Letting your colleagues see the actual baby may help them have more appreciation that life for you now has a new normal that you are also still adapting to
It was also very heartwarming to see mums bringing their kids and families along to attend the event at the kids-friendly event location at Trehaus@Funan. Kudos to the dads for chipping in to take care of the kids so that the mums could concentrate at the event!
All in all, we hope to make YWLC more inclusive for women in all stages of life and to support each other, by creating a safe platform for women to share their life experiences and insights, so as to shed light for those who are or will be going through the same transitions in life.
If you are interested in organising our next event, Future Women Leaders Forum, do email recruitment@ywlc.org.sg
Organising Team: Felicia Foo, Cheo Pei Rong, Bridget Tai, Celine Liow, Ling Ling, Alicia Lee, Bai Yuxin, Deborah Hendricks, Natalie Tse
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