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Comment by rsmsky1 | Hacker News Reader

This is a serious question as a woman who has never been pregnant and perhaps not that knowledgable about pregnancies. Doesn't giving birth render you incapacitated for a certain period of time even if everything goes well and there's no guarantee after giving birth things will return to normal. Even in cases where one's life isn't at risk, there's a high risk of postpartum depression, etc. It seems very unfair to me that women have to deal with such things. I hope one day women won't need to have periods without taking any additional health risks and also that it will be easier for women to have surrogate baby carriers.

Another serious question is wouldn't a nursery at work be disruptive if there is a lot of crying, etc. or how will it be set up so as not to bother people who are working.

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It depends on the pregnancy and on the birth. Some women jump right up and get back into the swing of things. Most of us need recovery time. There is no safe assumption.

Speaking of assumptions, there is no reason to assume a CEO mother would have a nursery at work. She might well have a stay-at-home spouse (I do) or a parent or nanny or any number of things.

> Some women jump right up and get back into the swing of things.

Even 25 year olds in the shape of olympic champions take a week or so to be back in the full swing of things. The first few days are limited movement. A couple of weeks is more reasonable, particularly since two weeks of bonding is highly recommended (for both mother and father). Skin to skin! :)

I'm not saying there isn't a woman out there, somewhere, who had a kid at noon and was ready for work the next morning. But that's incredibly rare, certainly not anything to expect or plan for.

That being said, if a founder missing a few adequately planned for weeks of full time work kills a company it probably wasn't going anywhere anyway. Not that the investors would see it that way.

Sorry, I should indeed have specified "jump right up" as "a few days of recovery." Thanks for clarifying.

How long is the recovery time usually, I mean typically for the average woman? Also, I mentioned the nursery because in the post it said she would have a nursery at work.

It's a pretty wide distribution, which is my whole point. Also, "recovery" can be defined in a lot of different ways. A lot of people feel pretty decent at their six-week checkup, if they're not too sleep-deprived.

And sorry, I missed the reference to the nursery in the post.

I think you need to talk to your mom about a lot of this. ;)

"Incapacitated" is the wrong word. "Sleep deprived" because junior demands he be fed a couple of times during the night is more accurate.

Having an infant at the office would be very disruptive. Their cries are designed by Nature to be annoying to adults so that they get the attention they need.

I mean after giving birth isn't there a certain amount of time where one can't do much? One doesn't just give birth and hop right back up. For instance in my pilates class a woman who wasn't even visibly pregnant said she had to be careful because previously she had a miscarriage after doing pilates. So if even light exercising such as pilates, I can't imagine what more intense effort such as the stress of running a company would do to some people. But I guess it depends on the individual.

It depends on the woman and the pregnancy. Some women do bounce back right after childbirth, but my guess is that's the exception rather than the norm. The combination of healing from childbirth (which can be minimal to significant for vaginal deliveries, and is uncompromisingly significant for C-sections), the hormonal whiplash, the sleep deprivation, and the demands a newborn places on your time will almost certainly make it exceptionally difficult - though certainly not impossible - to be productive at much of anything.

Regarding stress and exercise during gestation, there's a lot of research that shows that high stress levels during pregnancy should be avoided, and high-impact exercise is generally out. Low-impact exercise is generally fine, though your doctor will tell you to avoid it if you have a high-risk pregnancy.

My mom was on a bowling team while carrying me. Unfortunately, none of that experience transferred across the womb, and I'm still mediocre at it. Having a c-section was common back then (I was born via one), so there is a recovery time with that, as the muscles knit back together.

Every woman is different. I have known women who have gotten right back into their exercise routine, and others who have taken a fair amount of time before becoming active again. Do what you're comfortable with, and talk to your doctor/mid-wife if you have questions.

It's not as though my doctor has time to answer my questions about random women. I prefer to spend my time with my doctor talking about my health. But given the changes to one's body during pregnancy and physical needs, etc, it seems reasonable to me, unfortunately to be cautious about investing in a woman who is pregnant.

I see the word "unfair" has been used at least 11 times in this HN discussion so far. I can somewhat understand the sentiment, but I can't also help but wonder if it could ever be unfair that the density of ruthenium is 12.2 g/cm^3, and not some other more convenient value.

Yes it is unfair. But society compensates by loading off some shitty jobs on men.

Maybe in the future it will be possible to grow babies in incubators. There is actually a force in action to make it likely: the attempt so save prematurely born babies. The more that technology advances, the more possible it will become to shorten pregnancies and have them carried out in the incubator instead.

Same thing could be caused by illness, physical injury, family issues, etc, etc.

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