Carry Strong: An Empowered Approach to Navigating Pregnancy and Work

by Stephanie Kramer

A groundbreaking approach to successfully navigating your pregnancy at work

Pregnancy is a profound journey. Navigating it while working—from figuring out how to tell your boss you’re pregnant to squeezing in doctors’ appointments between meetings, all while working even harder to prove yourself—can be a push and pull between a desire for privacy and the need for support. The good news is, it’s possible to thrive in both spaces. Carry Strong offers a new approach that will transform your pregnancy years at work from something to “get through” into a career opportunity to embrace with confidence.

Employing original research, expert advice, and real-life stories from Olympic athletes, CEOs, and hundreds of amazing working mothers across the country, executive and professor Stephanie Kramer outlines essential principles for navigating pregnancy and work simultaneously. She shows you how to embrace a different perspective, find your balance, cultivate community, communicate your needs, and navigate the shift in identity from working woman to working mother. Along the way, you’ll identify career considerations to make at each phase of pregnancy, starting with the moment you decide you want to become a working mom-to-be.

In Carry Strong, Kramer flips the This isn’t about powering through pregnancy at work. It’s about being powerful and pregnant at work.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

Published May 23, 2023

Reviews

[Zibby Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a game-changing guide for working moms-to-be. The author helps expectant mothers with careers navigate the challenging terrain of pregnancy so they can thrive and come out the other side. As an executive and professor, the author combines original research, expert advice, and inspiring stories from Olympic athletes and CEOs to create a comprehensive guide that transforms pregnancy into a career opportunity. The book offers essential principles to succeed in private and professional realms.

I was particularly inspired by one of the author's quotes, "Just because you carry something well doesn't mean it isn't heavy." I love her approach to supporting women by building a supportive community through communication. She brings private conversations to the forefront—things like trying to get pregnant and living with hormones—something I think many of us can relate to. She offers more than just anecdotes; she gives tangible advice, underscoring that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to work-life balance. This book empowers women to be both powerful and pregnant in the workplace—a must-read for those seeking confidence and success on their pregnancy journey.

To listen to my interview with the author, go to my podcast at: https://shows.acast.com/moms-dont-hav...

[Alli Bittner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by Stephanie Kramer, the CHRO of L’Oreal, this book fills a really important gap in the literature on working motherhood. There are tons of books about how to navigate the professional world when there’s a child in your home. But until this book, I’d never seen one about how to navigate the professional world during the scary-yet-oh-so-special time when there’s a child in your womb.

Stephanie spoke to my office as part of her book tour this past spring, and my firm gave away copies of this book to everyone in our office for free. I was pregnant at the time, but still in my first trimester and “closeted,” with only two people on my immediate team aware of the tiny life growing inside me (and only because I needed them to cover for my sometimes-debilitating morning sickness.) While Stephanie spoke, I fought back tears of gratitude at the back of the room, thankful that someone was putting eloquent words to the overwhelm I was feeling. My firm’s culture was already amazing, but Stephanie’s wisdom about how companies can rally to support pregnant colleagues made it even better. When I finally “came out” at work a few weeks into my second trimester, I felt no fear in doing so, and my teammates have been nothing but loving and supportive.

The title of this book, “Carry Strong,” might suggest that this is a hustle-and-grind manifesto, but it’s quite the opposite actually. It’s about balance and boundaries; about honoring your limits, knowing what you need for yourself and your baby, and asking for it. My biggest takeaway: you can do it all, but not at the same time, and definitely not alone. You don’t have to choose between being a kickass professional and an amazing mom-to-be. You won’t be both every day, but you will be both SOME days, and your success in either role will never be defined by a single day. 🫶🏼

[Lily Narbonne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was everything for me. Finished on my due date