According to Lauren Smith Brody, the "fifth trimester" is where a working mom is born. In this episode, Lauren shares what lead to writing The Fifth Trimester, how you can be a voice to push forward your own workplace, and what working parents really need.

We also talk about the role of partners in this conversation and what makes being a working mom a strength that helps with the bottom line at companies. For fun, we also chat about the recent viral photo of Lauren registering for after school care while sitting on a panel at a conference!

Highlights:

• Lauren's background and what lead to writing The Fifth Trimester
• What she means by the fifth trimester and why it's important
• How being transparent in the workplace will change things in the future
• How you can be a voice to push forward in your own workplace
• What makes being a working mom a strength in the workplace and why this helps in profit for companies
• The story behind the viral photo of Lauren registering for after school care while on a conference panel
• The role of fathers and partners in support of working mothers
• What to do if things feel unbalanced with your partner
• How companies can better support parents

Today’s Guest:

Lauren Smith Brody is the founder of The Fifth Trimester movement and consulting, which helps parents and businesses collaborate to retain women and foster family-friendly workplace culture. Her book, The Fifth Trimester: The Working Mom’s Guide to Style, Sanity, and Success After Baby (Doubleday/Anchor), was a simultaneous best-seller in the Amazon categories of motherhood, women and business, and cultural anthropology. The Fifth Trimester has been featured in The New York Times, on Good Morning America, CNN.com, and dozens more outlets, and Brody has been a featured speaker at companies and organizations including Facebook, Fried Frank, The New York Times, Google, American Express, The Wing, GLG, Rackspace, Liberty Mutual, PwC, The Wharton Women’s Summit and more. As an entrepreneur who can’t quit journalism, Brody writes regularly about the intersection of business and motherhood for, among others, The New York Times, Slate, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Elle. 

Current ongoing engagements include: a new monthly motherhood column for Harper’s Bazaar, launching spring 2019; a six-city pilot work/balance coaching program at a top law firm in the healthcare space; the launch of #FAM x Condé Nast, an experiential-first content brand for Millennial parents raising culturally inclusive kids, for which Lauren is the editor-in-chief. 

A longtime leader in the women’s magazine industry, Lauren was previously the executive editor of Glamour magazine, where she ran the editorial staff and produced the magazine’s annual Women of the Year awards, honoring luminaries like Dr. Maya Angelou and Hillary Clinton. Raised in Ohio, Texas, and Georgia, she now lives in New York City with her husband and two young sons.

Resources:

www.thefifthtrimester.com Instagram: @thefifthtrimester Twitter: @laurensbrody Facebook: /thefifthtrimester The Fifth Trimester book