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In the Facebook group Freelancers in the Philippines by Jason Dulay (FLIP), we always see posts of young women working while breastfeeding, or doing their online work while sitting beside their sleeping babies. In their caption, they always use the hashtags #padedemom and #workathomemoms.
Since August is National Breastfeeding Awareness Month, we will showcase five mothers who took the leap in freelancing, so that they can give the best care and nutrition to their newborn babies through breastfeeding. Let’s get to know them.
Marcel Icasiano was a Call Center agent for 3 years before she switched to freelancing, a year after she gave birth to her baby. Her reason: She wanted to be a hands-on mom while earning from home. Her baby recently turned 2 years old. Because she was working from home, she was able to breastfeed him for 1 year and 4 months.
Jona Delos Santos was also a Call Center agent for a year before she went full-time into freelancing. While still in the corporate world, she started dipping her toes into freelancing on a part-time basis. But due to traffic and office politics, she eventually decided to quit her job to become a full-time freelancer. She is grateful that she was already working from home when she became a mom. She’s happily breastfeeding her baby for 7 months now.
Josie Lebrero worked as an Online ESL teacher for 1 year and 6 months before she switched to Freelancing. Her reason: She wanted to take care of and breastfeed her baby while working, which she could not do as an ESL Teacher. Besides, being a freelancer afforded her a more flexible schedule as opposed to a fixed one in online teaching. She was able to breastfeed for 1 year and 10 months.
Ivy Joy Calmares was an IT Specialist and a Licensed Electronics Engineer for 7 years before she became a freelancer. She wanted to take care of her growing family and at the same time earn from home. She was then a corporate employee when she had her first child, but when she had her second, her desire to spend more time with her family grew even more. She also wanted to breastfeed her baby on demand. And with freelancing, she was able to do so for 2 years and 8 months.
Ms. Anna Soriano of VA Bootcamp needs no introduction. Ms. A, as she is fondly called by VA Bootcamp students, epitomizes what every mommy freelancer wants to be -- a hands on mom to her 4 boys and a baby girl plus a successful freelancing business to boot! She is already a seasoned freelancer being in the industry for 5 years now.
Prior to freelancing, her work experience ranged from 10 years of corporate employment, to having a water station business that turned sour, to being an OFW for a short time, and all sorts of part-time hustles (real estate, networking, online selling), and even being a management trainee of a high-end clothing store.
It was only when she discovered freelancing that she realized her dream of having time and financial freedom. Now she is a strong advocate of freelancing because it literally changed her life. At the same time, she is also a strong advocate of breastfeeding. Would you believe that she breastfed all her 4 boys until they turned 3 years old? Wow! And she plans to do the same for her baby girl who is just 10 months old to date.
Apart from these freelancing moms, I have heard typical stories of former corporate employees who quit their jobs after giving birth to their babies, and for the very same reason -- They want to breastfeed and take care of their babies.
To protect, support, and encourage working mothers, the government enacted a law in 2009 - Republic Act 10028, otherwise known as the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act. This law requires workplaces to:1
However, despite this law, some mothers still opt to stay home with their babies rather than go back to their corporate jobs after giving birth.
In her blog entitled 3 Reasons Why I love being a Breastfeeding Work at Home Mom, Ivy Joy Calmares described the pains of what a typical breastfeeding office mom goes through when leaving her baby at home to go to work. That's why on her second baby, she left her corporate job and worked at home as a freelancer.
Though breastfeeding seems natural for mothers, there are also challenges that can be expected. Especially for first-time moms, they face problems such as, sore nipples, low milk supply, or even oversupply.
When faced with these challenges, what do mothers do?
In the past, these nursing moms turn to their mothers, relatives, friends, or health practitioners for support. Now, in this digital age, there are online breastfeeding support groups that abound on Facebook, where they can seek extra help.
This is what Ivy Joy did. She joined a breastfeeding group which proved very helpful in her breastfeeding journey.
Through adequate education and support, more and more moms are reaping the benefits of breastfeeding not just for their babies, but for the moms themselves.2
That being said, I believe that Freelancing is the best career for young mothers for the following reasons:
1. You can take care of your baby, breastfeed on-demand, for as long as you feel like it.
Freelancing mommies have gotten used to nursing their babies even if they're working. Or like in Jona's case, she expresses her milk and reserves it for later feeding while she is working.
2. You can witness your child's milestones since you are always at home.
As Jona said, the time she spent traveling and preparing for work can now be spent taking care of her baby.
3. You don't need to hire a nanny nor a household helper because you can do both.
All of our five featured mommies have saved on expenses because of this.
4. You don't need to file a leave to take care of your sick child.
5. You can choose to work on flexible hours.
Many freelance moms choose to work during the hours when their babies are asleep.
6. You can work for multiple clients at a time and choose what type of work you want to do.
With all these benefits, Macel, Jona, & Josie even disclosed that they are now earning more than their previous income from their corporate jobs. Ana and Ivy Joy, who have already set up their own freelancing agencies, earn even more.
All of these while taking care of their families and having a work-life balance that corporate employees only dream of.
To make this a fair discourse, we are also presenting some of the challenges that freelancers face.
First, since freelancing is a business rather than employment, there are no employee benefits to anticipate, such as 13th month pay, bonuses, health insurance, retirement benefits etc.
However, freelancers have learned to compensate for this by becoming financially savvy. They invest part of their income in various financial products that yield higher income like stocks, bonds, UITFs, money markets, and real estate which can cover for their retirement.
The second disadvantage is that you need to pay for your SSS, Philhealth, Pag-Ibig, and taxes yourself, unlike in a corporate job where people do it for you.
Third, there can be lots of distractions like when your little kids get a little rowdy, or when your neighbor’s dogs or chicken make noises. These can be irritating and make it difficult to concentrate on your work.
Fourth, income may fluctuate from month to month. You always have to hustle to get more clients, not just stick to one.
Before COVID-19, one of the main issues against freelancing was the security of tenure. However, this is no longer an issue today. With businesses streamlining, or worse, closing down, employees who felt comfortable working in an office suddenly found themselves jobless.
Freelancers, however, are still thriving as most of their clients are online E-commerce businesses and were not affected as much.
Times have indeed changed. The challenges in working from home can be just a matter of opinion for some, depending on a person’s perspective and mindset.
As for our Freelancing mommies, the benefits of freelancing still far outweigh the challenges.
Being able to spend quality time with their families is the greatest benefit for them.
Having time and financial freedom comes in second.
And working in their pajamas, waking up without an alarm clock, being at their workstation 5 minutes after waking up, taking vacations anytime, being present in important family occasions, not having office politics to contend with - these are just some of the perks that these freelancing mommies enjoy.
It’s like having the best of both worlds or having their cake and eating it too.
If you’re a breastfeeding mom, would you want to enjoy this kind of life?
For more information on how to freelance from home, you may check out VA Bootcamp’s free courses.
References:
1 Rights of Breastfeeding Moms at Work in the Philippines, Babymama.ph
2 “The Benefits of Breastfeeding for Baby and Mom” Cleveland Clinic
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