The first time I tried to navigate a stroller into a coffee shop, I was at the wrong coffee shop. I say that because the coffee shop had a step in front of it, and everyone looked like they thought I was evil to have a stroller with me. Also, I had no idea what I was doing. Needless to say, it didn’t go that well.
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Building a Postpartum Support Team & Roadmap to Recovery — Episode #062
What can you do during pregnancy to prepare for the first weeks and months after you’ve given birth? How can you build your own support team to get through the challenging period of brand spanking new motherhood? What might a roadmap to recovery look like?
Why to Join a Mastermind (and How to Start Your Own) — Episode #060
There is a lot of cultural pressure to figure it all out on your own, but you don’t have to. You can build communities of people around you and support each other in the decision-making process. Listen in to hear the benefits of joining (or starting!) your own mastermind group.
Looking For New Shows? Two Recommendations You Might Love
If you want to listen to some behind-the-scenes stories of what it’s taken to build Startup Pregnant, enjoy these two shows where we talk about what its taken to build the company so far, how we launched the podcast, and what strategies we used to spread our message.
Postpartum Depression, Daycare and Whether or Not to Be a Parent — Episode #051 With Kathleen Shannon
What if you’re doing everything right—exercising, eating right, self-care and meditation—and you’re still not okay? After Kathleen Shannon gave birth to her son, she appeared to have it all together. But she just didn’t. Though she didn’t realize it at the time, Kathleen was suffering from postpartum depression.
Core Value #1 | “In My Experience,” or the Three Most Important Words
We speak first using the words “In my experience.” These three words are critical for any conversation. We don’t strive for “one perfect woman” archetype. There are multiple stories of what it looks like to be a parent and to be an entrepreneur. The first principle or philosophy guides us and reminds us of this.
The Startup Pregnant Thanksgiving Contest: Win Books, Coaching, and More Prizes!
This November 2017, we’re running a contest here at Startup Pregnant where you can win 1:1 coaching with our founder, and prizes such as books, resources, and more. We’re running the contest around a special series of episodes we’re releasing this month on the Startup Pregnant Podcast.
Why We’re Bad at Predicting How Parenthood Feels
Often we choose not to do something because of how we think we’ll feel about it. But it turns out we’re not that great at understanding how something will actually feel—because we can’t account for how we, ourselves, will change in the process. Today we interview father of three kids under four, Mathias Jakobsen, the founder of Think Clearly, about his journey into parenting.
Why We Can’t Keep Having “Best of Entrepreneur” Lists That Are Overwhelmingly Male
What do entrepreneurs actually look like? Entrepreneurs are a rich mix of women, people of color, old, young, and more — yet round-up lists perpetuate the idea that an “Entrepreneur” is defined solely as an ambitious white male. In fact, the latter is more true: women and people of color tend to embrace entrepreneurship at a disproportionate rate precisely because the landscape of creating a new organization in your vision is so compelling. Here’s why “best of” lists keep missing the mark.
The Startup Parent Podcast: Why & How the Show Started — Episode #001 with Mattan Griffel
In this first episode, I give you a bit of the behind-the-scenes about why we started the show. When I interviewed at a Y Combinator backed startup in 2014, I was transparent about my desire and plans to start a family. Eight months in I was promoted to VP. One month later, I realized I was pregnant. The CEO, a great friend of mine, supported the entire process. Yet it still wasn’t what I expected. And that launched the start of a deeper desire to tell new stories about what it really takes to grow businesses and babies—and what’s been missing from the conversation. This podcast is the start of a conversation about the overlap between entrepreneurship, pregnancy, and parenting. Listen in to why we got started.
The Pain and Beauty of Pregnancy After Loss
Right now I...
A Maternity Leave Expert on Creating Her Own Maternity Leave
Arianna Taboada is a maternity leave researcher and expert. She helps entrepreneurs build their own maternity leaves when neither work nor country provide support. In this interview, we talk about everything from grief to loneliness to overwhelm, and how to create your own framework to make it through the transition to motherhood.
Why Maternity Leave Should be Less About Time Off and More About Flexibility
“I worked for myself, so I didn’t have any institutional maternity leave. With my first kid, I was just graduating from graduate school when I got pregnant and it was a very uncertain time. So I basically scraped it together doing freelance consulting and just made it work.” — Morra Aarons-Mele on having three children and running her own consultancy.
Filling the Gap With a Hidden, Untapped, Talent Pool
Dominie Moss is focused on a very specific gap in the market that is wildly underserved: women who have taken a career break and want to get back to work. In her estimation, there are 427,000 women in the UK alone that want to return to executive-level positions and have the talent to do so, but no clear path for what it looks like (yet). Dominie’s company is setting out to fix this.
The Benefits of Choosing to Work During Maternity Leave
What does it take to leave a career in venture capital to join a shipping startup—in between your first baby and second baby? Today we get to interview Renee DiResta, co-founder and Director of Marketing at Haven. Renee worked previously in Venture Capital, and before that, on Wall Street. To join a startup with two small kids required some specific negotiations.
Why Maternity Leave Isn’t Just Nice to Have, It’s a Human Rights Issue
What does maternity leave look like when you’re an entrepreneurial, small-business owning woman? There isn’t a roadmap or a public narrative about what it means to have this transition to motherhood, and more importantly, to working, business-owning motherhood. Here are three common barriers women run into, and how to overcome them.
Building a Family-Friendly Startup
Sara Mauskopf is the CEO and Co-founder of Winnie. She has a background in consumer technology and product management, having worked at Postmates, Twitter, YouTube, and Google. She graduated with a Computer Science and Engineering degree from MIT. She talks with us about how pregnancy and parenting changed her work, why she left to start her own company, and what Winnie does for parents.
Women Have Periods. Women Have Miscarriages. Being a Woman Involves Blood.
Courtney Skott is an award-winning, independent furniture and interior designer. She also wants to talk about blood: women have periods, they have miscarriages, and they have abortions. None of this should be shrouded in mystery or secrecy.
“Just You Wait!”
Why do people constantly caution you about what’s about to get worse? In one of the parenting groups I’m in, we started having a discussion about the phrase we always hear: “Just you wait.”
Dealing With Morning Sickness and Dehydration
One of the hardest parts about pregnancy is dealing with all of the symptoms and side effects. One ways to deal is with hydration. But water isn’t enough. Here’s how I handled it and what worked for me.
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