Charlotte Caleb is a woman who was texting a client when she realized that she might have to drop her phone for a bit to give birth.
The 32-year-old music artist manager said that she’d been invoicing and drafting contacts while in active labour. She worked into the night one evening in February, and it wasn’t until moments before the actual delivery of her son that she decided to stop texting her clients and give birth.
The woman said that she would only have benefited from around $200 per week maternity allowance from the State, so she had to work.
‘I’m always so nervous telling clients I need time off, but this particular client understood. She told me not to respond to her. She was very surprised I was messaging her at all.’
She even took her laptop into the hospital and remembers wandering around the yard, asking where she can plug it in.
When she got to 10cm dilated she told the client that if she doesn’t reply, it was because she was giving birth. Thankfully, the client was understanding. As it turns out, it had been a 72-hour labour, and she needed an episiotomy, so she was exhausted. She finally allowed herself to rest once she had her son Cassius, for three days.
And Charlotte is not alone. Many working mothers are ditching the traditional six-months-or-more maternity leave and returning early to work – simply because they can’t afford not to work.
Charlotte shared that she earns slightly more than her husband, and they both realized that it made financial sense for her to return to work at some stage. She said that they could survive on her salary alone, but not her husband’s. And money was not the only factor.
Charlotte also didn’t want to lose her identity by being a parent, and she didn’t want to be the person who only talks about her baby all the time. She was back to working full-time within days of giving birth, and she set up meetings and looked after clients.
She shares that she hasn’t regretted it for a second. She manages to b.r.e.a.s.tfeed her son and have a Zoom meeting at the same time, and even though she has many struggles while doing so, she somehow manages to do it all.
‘But we manage somehow. I may miss a call occasionally if he’s ill, and my mum will help out if I have a vital meeting. He’s now in daycare for two half-days a week and that will slowly increase over time. For now, we muddle through”, she concluded.