Furnace Room Door

The birth of our first child was perfectly timed a few weeks after our conference championships.  That gave me just over a month of relaxation, preparation, “nesting” or go stir-crazy time depending on the day.  It also gave me much of the summer to enjoy a few weeks of maternity leave and gradually get back into recruiting and coaching.  Our second child arrived a week early on the day I was supposed to ride the bus six hours with over fifty collegiate women to our last regular season race.  Needless to say, I did not go on that trip.  All season I had told the team that it was unlikely that I would attend that race.  The day before, we had practice, loaded the trailer and finalized all the plans.  I had met with my doctor, and she gave me the go-ahead … as long as I took all my paperwork with me.  However, when I woke up in the early hours of the morning, I knew that it was not to be.  I missed that race.  That was Friday.

On Monday afternoon, I was at practice with my newborn in the baby-Bjorn snuggled in under my float-suit.  Float-suits are those full-body, orange, insulated floatation suits that crab fishermen wear in Alaska.  And, I was out coaching on the river.  One of the women who coaches out of the boathouse next door yelled across from her dock, “When are you going to have that baby?”  I happily unzipped my giant suit to show her that the deed was done.  She laughed.  I went on with practice.  My team (of freshmen collegiate women) was ecstatic with the baby girl and only mildly surprised that I had made it to the boathouse much less on the water.  I had promised them that I would not miss much.  We had less than three weeks until our conference championship.

Through this experience, I learned that you could only generally time pregnancy and the birth of a child.  Even though many people had said that, I liked to think that I had more control over the situation.  I gained confidence in the strength and resilience of my own body.  That said, I was glad that it was my second child, and I had a better idea of what to expect.  And, as many women have done, I set an example for the athletes on my team, good or bad depending on your opinion, of what a woman can do when
pregnant and after childbirth.

To continue, when I first got pregnant, I looked over the calendar and I reviewed my employer’s policy for maternity leave.  It was a standard policy with paid and unpaid time off.  I met with the Associate Athletic Director that oversaw my sport.  I also met with the human resources representative in the Athletic Department.  I explained to both that my due date was a couple of weeks before our conference championships.  I wanted to postpone my maternity leave until after that final race and then take it in full during the summer.  They said no problem, gave me some paperwork, and said that I needed a letter from my doctor saying that I was allowed to return to work.  I got the letter from my doctor, turned in the paperwork, and focused on my team.

As described above, my baby arrived almost on schedule.  When I returned to work, I had a little place set up in the furnace room of the boathouse, perched on a stool, where I could nurse before and after practices.  It was kind of grungy, but it was warm.
My assistant coach taped a note to the door … Do Not Enter: Annie w/ Baby.  It was in that room, or closet rather, that I got a call from the university’s HR department saying that I indeed was not going to receive any paid leave.  Because I had a note stating that I was fit enough to work, I did not receive that benefit.  The advice that I would like to pass along from this experience is: know your employer’s policy from those who enforce it, in this case from Human Resources directly.

At the time, I was devastated and exhausted.  I felt like the administration did not recognize the value that I was (trying) to provide to the team or the sacrifice that (I felt) I was making to my child by dragging her to practice everyday.  That said, I never regretted my decision.  I was committed to the team I was coaching, and I wanted to see them through the end of the season.  And, in the end, I think my daughter has turned out just fine.