CEOs/bosses, how did you handle pregnancy?

[Mary2024]

hello! I’m a founder and CEO of an early-stage AI startup. We’re VC funded, things are going well, and I’ve just found out I’m 4-5 weeks pregnant! This was planned (although happened basically immediately so a bit of a surprise) and I am happy, but also feel very overwhelmed and stressed, and would love to hear some experiences from other women who’ve had babies while running companies.

My main concern is that right now I’m the only person with deep research expertise on our team of 5 - right now I’m on holiday and I’ve got engineering emailing me asking for input. We’re desperately trying to hire another senior researcher, which I hope will be enough.

I love my work and I’m terrified the company will fold if I’m not able to give it 100% - most startups fail anyway, even without their CEOs going awol. I also desperately want to spend time with my baby when it arrives!

Anyway, women bosses please share your experiences! How much mat leave did you take? Did you go back full time? Did you get someone to temporarily replace you? How did it all work out? How disruptive was it in total?

I'm not in exactly the same position as you, but I do single-handedly run the HR department in an SME of around 100 people.
I deal a lot with compliance as well as organising company events etc.

I am roughly 5 weeks pregnant, third child and this was completely unplanned and I am pooping myself. I am not happy at the thought of someone coming in to cover me, it's a department I have built up and really worked on and I have an excellent relationship with the other senior managers and employees.
I am only planning to take 10-12 weeks off and then come back on a phased return but I don't know how realistic that is.

I know I'm not giving you advice or speaking from experience, but I just want you to know you are not alone in your thoughts.

Not the same position as you but I am in a senior position and am the only expert in my area. Friday is my last day of work but I have 3 weeks holiday before my maternity starts. It would be difficult to find an external maternity cover for my role due to the specialist nature.

I’ve basically been writing a massive handbook on how to do my job before finishing up. Someone else from the HR team is going to be covering my role but she will just keep things ticking over and I have had to plan and prepare for everything that is going to be happening over my leave. She is more than capable of running things in my absence with the detailed notes to refer to. I know that when I come back some things will not be where they should be in terms of project progression but we’re all accounting for this and it’ll be fine. I return to work in January and will be very busy 🙈

@readyforroundthree @SarahB88 thanks ladies, it's really good to hear how other people are handling it. I'm now wondering if I could write a massive handbook! Hiring is just so hard in my field, as you can imagine everything and their mum is trying to hire AI researchers right now.

@Mary2024 it really was the easiest way for me and my company! Hiring someone would be a nightmare and it’s allowing someone to get some great exposure for their development. I’d be returning from leave by the time we hired someone if we even found someone and it sounds similar for yourself. I do have a manager above me which is slightly different, she can’t take my workload on but she also doesn’t have the indepth knowledge to train someone so handbook was the way to go. I have some time with the person who’s going to be looking after my cover and thankfully she learns in the same way as me so is delighted with the handbook and just having a couple of teams calls (we work remotely) to get an overview.

Congratulations! I have a few friends in senior positions in law and banking so they could only take very limited maternity leave. What worked for them is hiring a maternity nurse to help with nighttimes the first few months and then full time nanny and help from parents when they went back to work at three months. Could you work from home part time and still be involved in the business while on mat leave? My US colleagues only get three months of mat leave and all seem to be coping well with being back so early. Good luck!

Probably not want you want to hear but you keep working? I had a planned c-section took 2 weeks off then went back to it working a couple of hours a day. I had all the baby stuff in my office and basically kept the baby with me and worked around them, sometimes from home, sometimes in the office.

Everybody will handle it differently, I wanted to breastfeed, I hated pumping and I wanted to be with my baby as much as possible. Without me the company would have folded. It was really hard. This was 7 years ago, I have now exited and am a SAHM.

I am not a CEO/founder but have friends that are - they took very minimal mat leave and had a nanny. I would imagine you would go back to work but be super flexible, WFH, have half days/be on call but be at home so that you can see baby but work most days?

I’ve not been in the same position but I was a senior manager when I took mat leave and felt similar pressures.

You aren’t going to find someone with your exact expertise, build the team underneath you with varying skills and strengths that will make them successful and knowledgeable. Then in terms of a mat leave replacement for you find someone who is an excellent leader and can draw on the team’s experience rather than needing to know it all themselves.

You only get opportunity to be with your newborn once, take as much time as you possibly can.

Jobs can be replaced, families can’t.

A friend of mine has her own business which was really taking off when she got pregnant. Peegnancy hit her hard so she hired a maid when she was 12 weeks pregnant. She also hired a nanny before she gave birth so she had some help from the start. She "went back to work" around 4 weeks postpartum but very very part time. And for the next 3 months she was only in around 2 days a week. From 3 months onwards more like 4 short days.

So basically - very little time off but plenty of hired help and very flexible working.

It seems to have worked well.

Yeah, tbh this is what I’m looking at. Hoping for an exit at some point too (congratulations on yours!). Did you manage ok with sleep deprivation at the start? This is mostly what I’m worried about with going back very soon, that I’ll be so tired I won’t make good decisions.