Wharton MBA Mama Gives Birth To Baby Christopher
In December 2015, we featured 2nd year Wharton MBA student Stephanie Farabaugh in our “Spotlight Series.” As you may recall, Stephanie was due in January 2016 and spoke to us about being pregnant in business school and her plans for the new baby.
Well, Stephanie delivered a healthy baby boy named Christopher a few months ago. Here is what she had to say about life as a new MBA Mama:
I’ve never been happier. These first few months as a mom have been absolutely incredible; chaotic and sleep-depriving, sure — but overwhelmingly rewarding. I have found both fulfillment and motivation through this new role and identity, and consider myself very fortunate to experience motherhood while also pursuing an MBA.
Before her special delivery, Stephanie spoke to me about the anxiety she experienced when deciding to disclose her pregnancy status to her boss during her summer MBA internship at Abbvie, a biopharmaceutical company in Chicago, as well as her plans to balance her final semester at Wharton once Christopher was born. Check out the final part of our December 2015 interview below (better late than never, right?).
DM: Can you talk about your summer internship experience?
SF: When I started my internship at Abbvie, I was pregnant but when I interviewed for internships, I was not yet pregnant. Nevertheless, it was in our plans to hopefully try to get pregnant at some point.
When I started my summer MBA internship, I didn’t tell anyone that I was pregnant. I was terrified to do so because I didn’t know how people were going to react.
I knew Abbvie’s commercial leadership program was competitive and only gave a certain percentage of people job offers to come back after the summer. I didn’t want to be known as the one who was pregnant starting out. I made it a point to establish myself professionally so I could be known as someone who is motivated, driven, hard-working and committed to being there, before sharing with people that I was expecting.
I still remember how scared I was to talk to my manager. I told her about halfway through my internship and I was just past 20 weeks. She was so incredibly supportive which took a huge weight off of my shoulders. I remember telling her and she jumped out of her chair and gave me a hug, and started talking about what an awesome place Abbvie was for career moms who valued professional advancement as well as having a fulfilling personal life and being involved with their kids. She was the mom of twin girls who were 2 years old, so she talked about all of the flexibility Abbvie had given her as a new mom, and how willing the company had been to work with her on her schedule.
DM: Thanks for sharing that. You talked about how you wanted to be known as motivated and professional and not just the girl who’s pregnant. We’ve been hearing that so much since we launched MBA Mama, even from pre-MBA candidates. They say “I don’t want to be known as the single mom with a kid, I want to be known as the person whose been in banking and done a lot.” They see these very divergent roads. Do you have any thoughts about that?
SF: Within the professional world, especially in certain industries, there is still a long way to go to accept the fact that women can be both. But I also think that a lot of it, for me personally, was in my head. I thought my colleagues were going to perceive my pregnancy as one way, when in actuality everyone I told was incredibly supportive. That was really refreshing. So, I do think that professionally, some industries and some companies are more progressive than others.
But business in general needs to move forward to be more accepting and getting away from the mindset that women can’t be successful mothers as well as successful business women and entrepreneurs who are motivated, passionate, and committed.
DM: Once you have the baby, what childcare options and support network do you and your husband Ray plan to utilize?
SF: We have been able to take more courses this past semester so that we both only have three classes to graduate in our final semester at Wharton. I’m going to be taking classes in the morning, we have a baby buffer period around lunch time everyday where we are going to do a baby hand off. Ray’s going to be taking classes in the afternoon/evening. That allowed us to both get classes that we really wanted to take and structure our schedule accordingly. Hopefully, we’ll be able to make it work. We also have some family coming in to help us out in the early days.
DM: What is your maternity leave plan and plans for self-care and the time you need to physically recover and make sure you are not overloading yourself by coming straight back to Wharton postpartum? What is that going to look like for you?
SF: The best part is that Wharton has a built in maternity leave over the Christmas break, so I’ll have essentially a month before I have to go back to classes and then I think I am just going to have to take it day by day. I have the support of Wharton as well the support of my husband and friends and the Wharton community and other moms to help me through this. If I need to take a step back from extracurricular involvement or classes, I’ll be able to do so. It’s really hard for us to foresee what challenges will come since we’ve never done this before, but I feel confident that we have the support we need if I do have to take a step back.
DM: You mentioned the Wharton support and resources available here. Specifically in regards to where you’re going to have your baby and your health needs, what resources have you utilized thus far? And for women considering having a child during business school, would you say that having an affiliated prestigious medical school can factor in — what are your thoughts about that?
SF: There have been two things that have been really helpful. One is to have Wharton moms give me advice in terms of what resources to utilize. And the other is there is a Penn Special Delivery program which is awesome.
If you are a student of Wharton, or Penn student in general on the student health plan, you can be brought into this Penn Special Delivery program that provides free classes for child birthing and covers the majority of your prenatal care expenses as well as a lot of the labor and delivery costs. So it is a phenomenal benefit.
DM: How have your classmates responded now that you are visibly pregnant?
SF: A lot of people initially thought I was crazy. Rightfully so! But everyone has been incredibly supportive, which has been so nice. Many people have asked how I’m feeling and if there anything they can do to help. I haven’t needed to take anyone up on taking a lesser role on any projects or group presentations I’ve been working on — I was pretty conscious of that throughout the semester, but it is nice that people offered. People have said: if you need to take a step back or if we can bring you a meal, let us know. There’s even been plenty of people who’ve offered to babysit once the little guy is born. It’s been nice to see how our classmates have really come together for us.
DM: Can you talk about your husband’s role so far and how he has supported you this semester while also balancing his courseload at Wharton?
SF: He has always been incredibly supportive, even before the semester. He has enabled me to pursue a lot of things I wanted to do, whether it be the two of us going to Africa together before starting at Wharton or even the two of us applying to business school together. I don’t know if I would have done these things on my own.
We have taken a team work approach with a lot of the different things that we’ve done. That has enabled me, and I’ve been empowered by his support. Throughout the semester just knowing that he is there for me and that he supports this decision, that he’s in it with me has made it so much easier to be one of the few people who are pregnant at Wharton having a very different experience than anyone else. Having him by my side has made it a lot easier.
D: Many of the moms in our online community have expressed their fear to disclose their status as moms to MBA administrators or potential employers. You also mention being terrified to disclose your pregnancy to Abbvie. Do you have any advice for women who share this fear?
SF: I can definitely relate to that fear. But I think that with MBA administrators, schools are trying to attract a diverse pool of talent, of people that have different experiences., and throughout the application process it’s all about crafting your story to show what’s important to you and what differentiates you from other people who are applying.
Having a perspective of a mom who is also motivated, driven and committed to making an impact in the business world is an incredibly powerful perspective to have in the classroom.
I can relate to that fear and I would view as more of a strength than a weakness and try to position it as such in your applications. I don’t think it should be hidden. To some extent, it is the responsibility of career moms who want to make an impact in business to be vocal and say: “Hey I am just as competent and I’m just as motivated, and I’m a mom” which adds to my credibility instead of detracting from it.
DM: What are your post-MBA career plans?
SF: I will be in Chicago working at Abbvie in their commercial leadership development program. New role, new industry, versus what I was doing before Wharton. I’m absolutely thrilled about it. Ray and I will continue to re-evaluate what makes the most sense for our careers and our family as we move forward.
