Finding the right balance

In part two of this four-week series about women’s issues, The Volante focuses on the challenges students and faculty face concerning motherhood and S.D. Board of Regents policies. 

When first-year doctorate student Jennifer Elliott first started attending the University of South Dakota, she already had four school-aged children.

Elliott and her husband, Dan, who live in Sioux City, Iowa, have a blended family, and gave birth to their first biological child, Patrick, Oct. 17.

Elliott said she has already had some emotional thoughts about returning back to school following her leave.

“The first few months up to one year are so wonderful that I find myself feeling guilty about being in school,” she said.

It’s not the time spent physically in school she worries about — it’s the class and work load she will have to get through at home, she said.

“I do have some concerns if I will be able to swing things,” she said.

Elliott said she is blessed to be able to work from home, as does her husband, so she is hopeful they can have a 50-50 partnership in raising their new baby and allowing each other to meet their work demands.

Elliott said her maternity leave will be different, as she will not be on campus, but rather staying home.

“I will work from home during the time,” she said. “I think I have worked ahead enough to allow myself to take one week off with no class work.”

Upon returning, Elliott will also have to find time to breastfeed. Elliott said she is more fortunate than others to have an office to use, but still worries when she will be across campus and will need a private space.

“I have not looked into breastfeeding areas (at USD),” she said. “If they exist they are not well advertised. I honestly don’t know where that will happen without having to take time out of class to walk back to Dakota Hall.”

According to the Board of Regents policy 4:45, South Dakota universities are required to provide a private lactation space and appropriate break periods for the “expression of milk.”

An individual must have a child at or less than 12 months of age to be eligible to use the space, and are allowed break times to breastfeed.

USD’s space is located in the Lee Medical School where women are allowed to pump breast milk for a maximum of 20 minutes.

USD Director of Communications Tena Haraldson said there are women on staff who have recently had children and find the designated space inconvenient.

“Usually they work it out either within their office to get some privacy or they are using the bathroom,” she said.

USD Academic Adviser Carly Heard recently gave birth, and said she was aware of the designated breastfeeding area, but also uses her private office for nursing and pumping. She said she also believes there have been previous staff who have had to use the coat closet for such needs.

“With the increase in breastfeeding among mothers, I think it’s important that the university offer options for women,” she said.

Shane Nordyke, assistant political science professor, has two children, one of whom she planned to give birth to in May so she wouldn’t have to have other professors cover her classes.

“My daughter was born in May for a reason,” she said. “There are things women have done, as academics, in order to make the balance work better for others that we shouldn’t necessarily expect them to do.”

That’s the crux of the importance though, Nordyke said.

“The timing of the years of when you can advance most academically and professionally happen to coincide with the years in which you have the highest fertility,” she said.

In previous generations, Nordyke said, many women felt like they had to make the choice between advancing in their career or starting a family, so they delayed having children until later.

“For some of them that worked out very well, and for some of them it didn’t in terms of their fertility and their ability to actually have kids at a later stage in life,” she said.

Nordyke said finding a way to navigate the balance was good for her girls to see.

“It was good for them to be able to see me be successful professionally, and I think they benefit from that as much as they benefit from having me at home and making dinner,” she said. “Kids benefit from having stay-at-home parents too.”

Nordyke said she would like to see both men and women be able raise a family by taking maternity and paternity leave.

“If we recognize the importance of having women in the workplace and women within society and leadership positions and political positions, we have to find a way that makes parenting more in balance with professional life for both genders,” she said. “That’s a big part of it.”

Elliott is planning to bring her baby to campus, and said she has not met resistance yet, but does wish the university would provide information about being a student and raising a family.

“I was really nervous about talking to anyone about being pregnant and a student, almost like it was taboo,” she said. “I have heard horror stories about graduate students being pregnant and having a hard time making it through or not being taken seriously by their department.”

But Elliott said she got over her nervousness and felt that school needed to be a safe place.

“Just because you are a mom doesn’t make you any less of a student,” she said. “Moms definitely know how to multi-task, and this will be just another thing to juggle.  There should be no reason why women who want to start a family can’t have school and a baby at the same time.”

Look for the next article in The Volante’s women’s series Nov. 13 about harassment, addressing why harassment of women is such a huge issue, and how women are dealing with it.