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Choosing Between a Kid and a Career

Like it or not, pregnancy can affect your job prospects

by Penelope Trunk  |  999 views  |  2 comments  |        Rate this now! 

“They just want to talk to me,” I said.

He said, “They want to see how good you would look on TV.”

So I had someone do my hair and makeup, and I looked great that day. The executives told me they loved my column. They thought my wit and sensibility would come across well on TV. They talked about how the TV show would be structured and the training I would receive in on-air technique. Then they said, “Okay, we’ll get back to you.”

My husband said, “That means you’ll never hear from them. It’s over.”

But if I listened to all my husband’s pessimism, I’d have killed myself by now. So I’m still hoping.

Which brings me back to the bed. There we were, talking. We had planned another pregnancy for around this time. But I don’t think I’d be hired as a TV host if I were pregnant. By the time we began taping, I’d be very pregnant. It’s one thing for Catherine Zeta-Jones to show up really pregnant at the Oscars because the whole world knows she’s hot and she still looks a little hot, belly and all. But my TV audience wouldn’t know if the non-pregnant me was hot. There’s no way I could be pregnant for my TV debut (come to think of it, has anyone been pregnant for their debut as a TV show host?)

And I knew something else: You can’t control everything, and there’s no perfect time to have a baby. But one time is better for women than others, and that’s sooner. When I learned the risks of waiting to have a baby, I was shocked. When a woman gets pregnant at 35, her baby has a 1 in 224 chance of being born with Down’s syndrome. There’s a 1 in 200 chance the test for Down’s syndrome will kill the baby. And the odds increase with every passing day. I didn’t hear this when I started a company at 32. Instead I heard, “You have time.”

So now I know I don’t have time. And I know that if I put my next pregnancy on hold until I hear from the production company, something else is likely to come up to foil my plan of harmoniously integrating my pregnancy and my career.

We had sex that night. And we hoped for a baby. Because as a seasoned career girl, I know that even if postponing pregnancy would eventually have boosted my career, in the short term, the delay made it too high risk for my liking.

About the Author

Penelope Trunk is a blogger and author of Brazen Careerist. To read her blog, please go to www.penelopetrunk.com

Read more by Penelope Trunk

Leave a comment

2 comments so far...

  • oh so true, i kept waiting and waiting because of my career, options always seemed to present when we were thinking of getting pregnant. finally we just decided to go for it!
    i do have to say i think when it comes to hiring/promoting based on pregnancy it really depends on the company and the person. here we have more than one mom that has been promoted (more than once) while out on maternity leave!

    Flag as inappropriate Posted by Kate on 11th January 2008

  • Penelope, I purchased and read your book a few months ago. It was awesome!

    Flag as inappropriate Posted by Uhura on 9th January 2008

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