Life After Birth: Caregiving, Work Strategies with Founder, Author, Power Up Speaker
Lauren Smith Brody, author, journalist, activist and founder of The Fifth Trimester.
Many would agree the parenting process from birth to adulthood is not easy. Strategizing for equity as a parent and caregiver in the workplace is even more complicated, stressful and grueling for millions of American mothers, fathers, daughters and sons.
So Lauren Smith Brody, 48, journalist, author, caregiving activist, mother and founder, trademarked a phrase and declared the process of support her life’s mission: The Fifth Trimester.
“The idea was to address the corporate angle of motherhood, and it morphed into all moms and dads and all people providing short term and long term care. We are all in the Fifth Trimester,” says Smith Brody, the married mother of two sons, 15 and 18 years old, who is speaking at Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference August 26 on the panel, The Power of Care: Women Leading at Work and at Home.
“The idea was to address the corporate angle of #motherhood, and it morphed into all moms and dads and all people providing short term and long term care. We are all in the @FifthTrimester,” says Lauren Smith Brody, speaker @takeleadwomen #PowerUp conference”
Register for Power Up Conference here
“This was an awakening how universal it is,” says Brody, whose organization “supports all working parents and caregivers to advance women’s leadership and gender equity in the workforce.”
Author of the 2018 bestseller, The Fifth Trimester: The Working Mom’s Guide to Style, Sanity, and Success After Baby, a well-researched resource including interviews with 732 women, as well as her own life experiences, says, “I took 40 weeks to write the book, which is exactly the length of a pregnancy.”
She adds, “I knew my story was only one, so I wanted to hear from others and find our common threads and see how to show the system could be improved. I wanted to connect all these dots.”
This is prime time to dive into parenting and caregiving plus working challenges as well as offer strategies for solutions.
Read more in Take The Lead on pregnancy and work
New Pew Research Center data shows seven in 10 parents in the U.S. “say they handle parenting-related tasks while they’re working, while 59 percent say they take care of work-related tasks when they’re with their kids. More than half, 54 percent, say balancing work and family responsibilities is difficult,” Today’s Parent reports about the study of more than 2,000 working parents.
“7 in 10 parents in the US do #parenting tasks at work. 59% say they take care of work tasks while with their kids. 54% , say #balancing #work #family is hard. @PewResearch #caregiving ”
Read more in take The Lead on postpartum health
Close to 60 percent “say they do work tasks while they’re with their children; while more than half of full-time working parents say their job makes it harder to be a good parent.”
Meanwhile, promotions, advancement and career growth are more difficult for moms. “About 81 percent of full-time working moms say they take care of parenting tasks while at work at least sometimes. More strikingly, 38 percent say they do this extremely often, about double the share of dads who say the same,” Today’s Parent reports.
Read more in Take the Lead on pregnant working moms
At the Power Up Conference in Washington, D.C. on Women’s Equality Day, Smith Brody offers insights along with other panel experts including Brad Johnson, Founder / CEO, Workplace Allies; Wonder Wendy Farrell, Performer, Spokesperson & Fashion Advocate; Leseliey Welch, CEO & Co-Founder, Birth Center Equity; and Dr. Grace Alexis, Chancellor, Generations College.
According to Take The Lead, “This candid conversation brings together leaders, advocates, caregivers, and workplace experts to examine the emotional, financial, and professional impact of caregiving, from raising children to supporting aging parents and loved ones. Panelists will discuss the systemic challenges women continue to navigate, the changing expectations around work and family, and create bold solutions needed to create more equitable, supportive, and sustainable workplaces.”
Read more from Gloria Feldt on maternity leave policies
The oldest of five, Smith Brody says their parents, Susan and Jay Smith, were both journalists who met at the Ohio State University in Columbus as undergraduates and then worked at Dayton Daily News before going to the Austin American Statesman. Her father became president of Cox Newspapers, and the family then moved to Atlanta.
“Journalism is in my DNA,” says Smith Brody, who now writes regularly for The New York Times, Slate, and Elle, as well as monthly advice columns for Parade Media and the children’s brand Maisonette.
“My parents were always teaching me to make change for good,” says Smith Brody.
Attending University of Pennsylvania as an English major with a concentration in nonfiction writing, Smith Brody worked as the features editor for the Daily Pennsylvanian, when she met her now husband.
After graduating in 1999, Smith Brody was determined to work for the New Yorker, but instead started working for New Woman magazine in New York City. It folded within three months.
“I remember the suits came in right before Christmas and gave each of us a coupon for a free turkey from Amish Market.,” she says. She got another job quickly at Cosmo Girl magazine for teens.
After about eight months, she moved to Glamour magazine, part of the Conde Nast dynasty, and worked there 2002 to 2014, eventually becoming executive editor. It was there that she was in charge of Glamour Woman of The Year, and met Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead, who received the award in 2003.
“Lauren Smith Brody as former exec editor @Glamour named Gloria Feldt, cofounder @takeleadwomen as 2003 Glamour Woman of The Year. #leadership”
Read more from Gloria Feldt on childbirth
In a reorganization of the magazine, she was let go in 2014. With two young children and as the primary earner in her family while her husband finished medical school, he was now in residency and earning a salary. So she set to write her book and launch The Fifth Trimester movement.
“When I went back to work, I was not ready mentally or emotionally. So I made it my mission to advocate for people to have satisfaction in personal and professional lives and give people the room they need,” Smith Brody says.
“When I went back to work, I was not ready mentally or emotionally. So I made it my mission to advocate for people to have satisfaction in personal and professional lives and give people the room they need,” says Lauren Smith Brody, founder @FifthTrimester. #motherhood #workplace ”
Even though the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission supports the 2023 Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, many mothers report there is intense discrimination for pregnant workers who are often fired before parental leave, and then more are passed up for promotion and lose their jobs during or after parental leave.
Read more in Take The Lead on healthcare access for women
According to Fast Company, “Nearly half of all EEOC lawsuits last year involved pregnancy-related claims.”
And as work and family responsibilities converge, Motherly reports, “a new study looked at 2,000 American moms of children between five and 12 years old, and found the average hours moms work per week is 98. The average mom gets going around 6:23 a.m. and the work doesn’t stop until 8:31 p.m. According to the survey, the average mom is lucky to get about an hour and seven minutes to herself each day. Four out of 10 of the moms surveyed said their lives feel like never-ending series of tasks all week.”
Instead of applause and encouragement, working mothers face discrimination, negative moral judgment and career penalties.
“Instead of applause and encouragement, #workingmothers face #discrimination, negative moral judgment and #career penalties. @takeleadwomen #PowerUp”
Read more in Take The Lead on motherhood
A new study in Psychology of Women Quarterly, reports that participants reacted to descriptions of what women did as a parent and at work. Psypost reports, “Participants expressed stronger feelings of anger and disgust toward the ambitious mother. They also assigned more moral blame to her and were more likely to explicitly rate her as a bad, selfish mother compared to the exact same woman portrayed with low ambition.”
The researchers continue, “Working mothers who pursue workplace advancement often face a hidden social penalty, as they are judged far more harshly on their parenting abilities than less ambitious women. Fathers with identical professional success do not experience this moral condemnation, revealing a deep-seated bias that forces women to self-regulate to protect their maternal reputations.”
Read more in Take The Lead on working during pregnancy
Smith Brody’s move to advocate for working parents in the public policy sector was a natural shift, so she co-founded the non-partisan Chamber of Mothers in 2021, now with 50 chapters around the country.
“Lauren Smith Brody’s #advocacy for #workingparents in public policy was a natural shift, so she co-founded non-partisan Chamber of Mothers in 2021, now with 50 chapters around the country. ”
“In the private sector where so much of the work is needed, support is inaccessible. So we set out to work on the public policy element with three goals: guarantee the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act, secure affordable childcare and seek improved maternal health outcomes,” Smith Brody says.
“American mothers are leaving the workforce at a pace not seen in decades. More than 400,000 women exited the U.S. labor force in the first half of 2025, according to a University of Kansas analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the steepest decline in over 40 years for mothers of young children,” Fast Company reports.
“ @FastCompany: “American #mothers are leaving the #workforce at a pace not seen in decades. More than 400,000 women exited the U.S. labor force in the first half of 2025, the steepest decline in 40+ years for mothers of young children.”
Read more from Gloria Feldt on working mothers
The difficulties working mothers face are increasing in the U.S., but they are not unique to this country. In Japan, for instance, Fast Company reports, The word, matahara, means a contraction of “maternity harassment. It covers everything done to pregnant employees and new mothers at work—pressure to resign, demotions upon return from leave, projects reassigned, managers who treat a pregnancy as a personal betrayal. The word is so widely used that it belongs to the everyday vocabulary of Japanese working life.”
In her consulting work with businesses and companies on parenting and caregiving, Smith Brody says she tells leaders, “Once you bring that advocacy into the workplace, you are making the employer more profitable, having happier employees and helping the U.S. economy.” By creating employee resource groups, resources and amenable policies, Smith Brody says workplaces improve.
“Once you bring caregiving advocacy into the workplace, you are making the employer more profitable, having happier employees and helping the U.S. economy,” says Lauren Smith Brody, speaker @takeleadwomen #PowerUp Conference. ”
Read more in Take The Lead on solutions for working moms
“It is important to give mothers hope for their buying power, voting power, and power as leaders of their households. We need a simultaneous path to progress privately and publicly,” says Smith Brody.
“When advocating for mothers you can’t help but be an optimist. You want to make a better world for them and for yourself.”
Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference 2026, Audacity: Leadership In Action, features a diverse group of speakers and experts speaking on the importance of inclusive leadership and strategies to solve systemic and historical barriers across all sectors. In addition to the caregiving panel, other topics include, Women Claiming Midlife Health & Power, along with Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, Executive Director, NYU Law; Emily Serebryanny, co-founder of Institute FLE; Dr. Rachel Rubin, Urologist & Sexual Medicine Specialist; and Davina Lyons, Resilience Strategist, Creator of the RISE Framework. Additionally, following keynote speaker Margaret Atwood, there are panels on the power of storytelling, AI, wealth, entrepreneurship, investing and more. Learn more about other speakers and panels and register here.
