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New Mothers, Let’s Talk About Your Professional Identity Crisis

By Janna Koretz — 2020

Parenthood — especially for women — changes you. After giving birth, the brain actually redesigns itself, trimming old connections and building new ones. If you’re someone who has constructed your adult identity around your career, these changes to how you operate can shake your foundations. Even more unnerving, though, is the sudden instinct some feel to actually want to engage in motherhood above all else. The collision of these two identities can lead to an identity crisis, anxiety, depression, and burnout.

Read on hbr.org

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Naomi Osaka Shouldn’t Feel Pressured to Rush Return to Tennis

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Naomi Osaka: ‘It’s O.K. Not to Be O.K.’

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‘This Will 100% Save Somebody’s Life.’ Athletes See a Turning Point for Mental Health After Naomi Osaka Takes a Stand at the French Open

Through the size of her platform, however, and her decision to choose well-being over pursuit of a Grand Slam title, Osaka offers the promise of bringing mental health awareness—both inside and outside of sports—to an entirely new level.

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Simone Biles and the Power of ‘No’

By withdrawing from competition citing concerns over her mental health, Biles showed that resisting expectations can be more powerful than persisting through them.

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Why I’m Over Women’s ‘Empowerment’

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The Miracle of Motherhood Your Way

Even though I had spent much of the five years prior to my daughter Annie’s birth delivering babies and marveling at how infinitely varied were the ways in which their mothers responded to them, I was completely unaware of what my own response would be.

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EXPLORE TOPIC

Adjusting to Parenthood