Print This PostContinuing my series on parenting and academia, today I’ll be talking about my experience of being pregnant while working within dementia research, and particularly about the logistics of preparing to take a period of parental leave.
As I mentioned in last month’s post, my pregnancy was supremely easy. I didn’t find it a physical challenge (thank goodness!), and actually managed to (inadvertently) conceal it for quite a long time. One of my church friends, who I see every week, didn’t even realise until his wife told him – at which point I was already 7 months gone. I remained active throughout, largely down to my own stubbornness and refusal to change my existing way of life.
Very soon after I discovered I was pregnant, I found out that an abstract I had submitted to the Alzheimer Europe Conference had been accepted for an oral presentation. This was great news – particularly given the conference was in Helsinki…! I did the maths, and it transpired that I would be around 35 weeks pregnant at the point of the conference. But all was not lost! You can legally fly (with a fit note) until 36 weeks! In the interests of transparency, I decided I should probably tell my team about my situation before we booked the flights. Everyone was duly excited for me, however did try to flag that by 35 weeks I might not be feeling my best, so it may be that by October I would have second thoughts. Alas, I would not be deterred, so confirmed my attendance straight away. Thankfully, by October I still felt absolutely fine (and Ryanair evidently didn’t even notice I was heavily pregnant), so all was well!
In my day-to-day research life, becoming pregnant did end up adding some extra pressure. My supervisors and I had discussed completing my PhD upgrade in the autumn term; however, knowing that I would go on maternity leave in November gave me something of a firm deadline, so we booked it in for the beginning of October. At the same time, I was working part-time on a feasibility and implementation study which was drawing to a close. I was responsible for the process evaluation; quite a weighty thematic analysis using substantial data. My contract was coming to its conclusion at the end of September, so between that analysis and my 10,000-word upgrade report, August and September definitely felt like crunch time. I can be quite bad for checking my emails while off the clock, but this was the first time I ended up sitting down for a full day of work while on annual leave.
Often when I spoke to people about my impending maternity leave, they would ask when I was going to start ‘winding down’.
In honesty I can say that this never happened. My assumption was that after my upgrade and the conclusion of my work contract things would ease up a little, however I became obsessed with finishing things off. After my successful upgrade, I was keen to complete my systematic review – including writing it up for publication. Dissemination was also a key focus for the feasibility study: although I was no longer employed, as an early career researcher I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to contribute towards dissemination, particularly where potential first author papers were concerned. As such, in the final few weeks before my due date I worked frantically trying to draft and redraft papers. Thankfully, on the last day before leave I managed to submit one paper to a journal, and circulate the first draft of another to my team. Those papers did come at the cost of my systematic review though; with less than two weeks until my due date I realised it wouldn’t be wise to work endless extra hours. And actually, my review will still be there when I come back from leave, a familiar friend to return to. The papers for my other project, however, would not have been.
All in all, the idea of winding down ended up being something of a falsehood; instead, I can honestly say it amped up. I can be grateful, though, that I wasn’t undertaking any fieldwork at the time, which would definitely have added extra complications to the mix. Small mercies…!
I was relieved to be able to finish drafts of those two papers, because it was important to me to be able to see the project through. I’m fortunate, however, to know with absolute certainty that had I not managed it, my team would still have involved me, and credited me for the work I had done. Sadly, this isn’t the case for everyone – I have spoken to other researchers who have somehow fallen off the list of authors while on maternity leave. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess.
The nature of academia presents unique challenges when going on maternity leave, particularly when working on fixed-term contracts, on relatively short-term studies. My advice to other researchers in this position is to figure out your own pace, work out what is feasible, and to decide on your priorities. Which tasks can be left until you return? Which are important enough to put in the time and effort for? And which could you let go of, even if it means not reaping the rewards? It’s okay not to do everything, and I’m sure that whatever you manage, it will be more than enough.
Emily Spencer
Author
Emily Spencer is a PhD Student at University College London looking at improving how GPs communicate with people with dementia and their family carers about their future care. Emily previous had a 5 year career break to pursue a career as a musician, and has previously undertaken research on improving the care people with dementia receive from their GP practice, as well as end-of-life and palliative care provision in the community. Emily is also a new mum and will be writing about her experiences navigating motherhood and a research career.
Dr Jodi Watt
Dr Yvonne Couch
Dementia Researcher
Ajantha Abey
Dr Becky Carlyle
Dr Clíona Farrell