Health Challenges for Working Moms and Solutions

Working mothers often face several challenges when balancing their work with raising their children. These challenges can be grouped into three main areas: child care, family life, and career. From raising children and taking care of the family to carrying out professional duties and obligations, working moms juggle professional and domestic responsibilities while racing against time.

A rift between passion and obligation -Daring to dream and being ambitious are two aspects of human nature. But considering a working mother must also tend to the needs of her family, there is always an underlying conflict between what she wants and what she must do.

Constant stress, poor diet, long sitting hours and practically non-existent work-life balance are the primary causes of most of working moms’ health issues. On top of all that, the chronic neglect of self-care and health ends up worsening the matters for working mothers. Let us take a look at some of the most prevalent health conditions affecting working moms.

Stress & Anxiety

Most working mothers end up working round-the-clock and feeling extremely tedious and exhausting.Besides having to handle their professional work, they have to tend to their household chores and to look after kids.This drastically affects their work-life balance and takes a toll on their emotional as well as mental health.

Mental health

Working mothers feel the guilt of not devoting enough time to her children can also cause a working mother to feel depressed. Factors such as lack of sleep, nutrition and exercise can also cause depression among working mothers. No time for ‘Self’- A working women, while performing the role of the mother and a professional, forgets to invest any time on herself. There is no recreation period for them, even when they are on a work leave. It’s either this or that. There is just no time for oneself.

Vitamin & Nutritional Deficiencies

While motherhood may be the most wonderful blessing known to womankind, but it is surely not the end of your individuality

A working mother’s diet often ends up bearing the brunt of her poor eating habits like erratic eating schedule, poor meal selection or skipping meals altogether. Since they often rush to their workplaces in the morning, they don’t find enough time to prepare wholesome meals. Similarly, fatigue and exhaustion prevent them from cooking or consuming a healthy meal once they reach home. The only options they are left with are quick meals, junk and unhealthy foods without any nutrients or vitamins. Consequently, most of the working mothers suffer from one or more nutritional or vitamin deficiencies.

Thyroid problems

Twice as prevalent in women as in men, thyroid disease is a common health condition affecting working mothers. Due to hormonal changes in the body during and after pregnancy and menopause, many working moms end up falling victim to thyroid disease. Most women have hypothyroidism (low thyroid hormone levels), wherein the metabolism slows down, and women tend to gain excessive weight. Most common symptoms include fatigue and weakness, anxiety, unexplained weight gain or loss, menstrual irregularities and pigmentation around the neck.

Weight gain

Working mothers are unable to take time out for themselves and have poor dietary habits leading to weight gain. Lack of physical activity due to prolonged sitting can lead to deposition of fat leading to fatty liver, hypertension, etc.

Cardiovascular Diseases

Women struggling with constant stress and anxiety are also prone to cardiovascular diseases. Because of their sedentary lifestyle, working moms, even as young as 35 years, find themselves at the risk of suffering cardiovascular ailments. Poor eating habits, regularly skipping meals, leading a stressful life and lack of physical activities can lead to heart problems like high cholesterol and hypertension. Moreover, excessive workload and constant pressure from superiors and colleagues can cause stress, high blood pressure and other heart-related disorders.

Chronic Backache

There is no denying that working moms are breaking the glass ceiling at work, but in this process, they end up breaking their backs as well. Sitting glued to their chairs in front of a screen without breaks restricts body movement. When at home, working mothers end up looking after their children and family without taking any time to rest. As a result, many working moms complain of constant pain in their lower backs. It is mainly caused due to prolonged sitting hours, poor posture and excessive weight.

Ways to overcome such challenges

While it may seem extremely difficult to break away from the troubles of being a working mother as well as a full-time mother, there is always a solution to tackle these situations in life.

That being said, if you’re a working mom and are facing similar challenges, here are a few ways you can overcome them with just some extra effort.

Organise and plan your work for the day beforehand so that you can manage your time efficiently.
Make sure to develop a relationship, where your partner or your husband acknowledges his role as a parent too and puts in the same effort you do in taking care of the family.
Maintain cordial relationships with your relatives and siblings so that you can approach them easily in times of an emergency.
Try to have a balanced diet
Try to do some physical workout like 30 minutes of walking or jogging. This will make you feel energetic and helps improve blood circulation. Simple activities like climbing stairs instead of the elevator can also help. Practise yoga.
Most importantly, you must understand the value of your own dreams and ambitions.

Working moms should not hesitate to ask for help and involve their partners and families in sharing their workloads.

While motherhood may be the most wonderful blessing known to womankind, but it is surely not the end of your individuality

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