by Meagan Barrett ’15 and Haley Whitt ’15

For obvious reasons, it is hard for students not to notice when one of their teachers is pregnant. However, students likely do not consider how much more challenging and tiring it becomes to be an effective, interactive teacher while handling all of the physical and emotional demands of being an expectant mother.

Being pregnant is hard for anyone. But being a teacher while being pregnant is undoubtedly much more difficult. Math teacher Sia Senior is an expert in this area, having recently returned from her second maternity leave. Her daughter, Michaelah, was born this past October.

“The students are always so sweet about it. They want to know if it’s a boy or a girl, if they can feel my stomach,” Senior said. But teaching while pregnant isn’t always pleasant. “It’s easier to get winded because of the extra 30 pounds you’re carrying … I’m a physical kind of teacher.”

Science teacher Britani Greco is five months pregnant with a baby girl. “It’s harder to be on your feet all day. It’s a lot of carrying around extra weight,” Greco said. “I like to move, so it’s very hard for me to stay off my feet.”

Social studies teacher Karen Sinclair agrees that the lack of mobility is one of the hardest aspects of a pregnancy. “The problem is that you can’t be as effective, especially in the last trimester, because you can’t be an effective teacher if you can’t move around.”

Ashley Barber-Strunk, head of the Health Department and physical education teacher, said that her PE classes kept her active during her pregnancy, but it was not without challenges. “I did have to go to the bathroom pretty often,” she noted.

Once the baby is born, the mother confronts a new set of challenges. The first priority is having a long-term substitute in place. “I didn’t just pick up someone off the street. I got a math person,” said Senior. She left in October, in the middle of first quarter. Was this difficult for her? “Not for me,” she said with a chuckle.

“I left right at the end of third quarter,” Greco said. “It’s hard to leave no matter what. But I had an emergency, and my kids came in the next day to hand worksheets in, and I wasn’t here to help them. I couldn’t wrap up loose ends.” Greco was out all of fourth quarter.

Sinclair said leaving in April for maternity leave made it more manageable for her students. “I think it made it easier for students because they got to have me for a majority of the year, and I did a majority of the teaching before I left,” said Sinclair.

All of the teachers agree that coming back to teach while the infant stays at home is the most difficult part of post-pregnancy.

“Teaching is harder to do when you’re a working mom,” Senior said. “It’s hard to give 100 percent. I could no longer grade at home. I can’t say [to the baby], ‘Hold on, I’ll make you dinner as soon as I’m done grading.’”

“I miss [Grace] to death,” said Barber-Strunk about her daughter, born in October 2011.  “I don’t get to experience certain milestones with her, like seeing her first steps.”

Senior noted not only the challenges of having a newborn at home, but the benefits as well. Since she cannot grade at home, she finds other means. “I grade whenever I can at school. I’m multitasking. I’ve become more efficient at school,” Senior said.

Many teachers concurred that becoming a parent made them a better teacher. Barber-Strunk added, “After being a mother, I feel more passionate about teaching kids.”

“It was a hard experience to come back to school after having Mason because it was hard to juggle being a new mom and being a teacher,” Greco said of her son, almost two. “As a teacher, I feel like I’m the mother of 170 kids.”