Jen Murtagh and Sonja Foley, Co-Founders at Maturn.
Maternity leave can be a wonderful time in a women’s life, but it can also be extremely stressful. Trying to pause a career, take care of a baby and worry about how to juggle it all when you return to work can be extremely overwhelming and can crumble even the strongest humans.
We love how Maturn was created to help shift this narrative. To make maternity leave a positive for both the working mom as well as the employer and to help offer a community of support to navigate the many ups and downs. This is truly a program that can help create future women leaders by simply changing the narrative and stigma around maternity leave and being a working mom.
Read on to find out why Jen and Sonja created Maturn, the success they have had with it and their thoughts on how women can best support each other.
Can you share how the idea came about to start Maturn?
Maturn was really inspired by the challenges we both experienced during our maternity leaves. I believe I was woefully prepared for the transition to leave, on leave and in the return to work. Maternity leave was a lot more isolating than I would have imagined and I grappled with the identity shift that new motherhood brought. I would have greatly benefited from support and a community of like-minded mothers who were also navigating through these changes.
It is a staggering (but not surprising) stat that less than 1% of women reported feeling confident returning to work post maternity leave. How does Maturn help change the narrative and help offer support to working Mom's?
This statistic comes from our Maturn Survey we ran that polled over 130 women who had taken maternity leave in the last five years. It really shocked us and we are committed to changing that statistic.
By being a part of the Maturn community, our goal is to help mothers feel empowered about their return and supported through their transitions.
So many women struggle with their confidence in their time away from their careers but mothers are even more valuable upon their return and shouldn't feel like they need to hide the fact they are a parent. In the Reframing Motherhood study, the research showed that motherhood makes you a better leader.
Congrats on your feature in Forbes and having SAP as a founding partner! To be able to offer a support system for corporations that are looking to retain staff and develop more women leaders is so valuable. Can you share any success stories since starting Maturn?
This is a recent quote from one of our participants:
My experience with the Maturn program has exceeded my expectations. The modules are informative, comprehensive, and thought provoking. I wish I had access to this program before and during my first maternity leave as I was unprepared for my leave and return to work which made it extremely challenging. Jen and Sonja provide a safe place full of compassion for participants to openly discuss their struggles. This has helped me feel like I am not alone and failing as a mother. I highly recommend this program and believe more companies should provide employees with this type of support for their mental well-being, as we all know that being a parent is one of the hardest jobs in the world.”
What has been the best outcome for you personally since starting Maturn?
We built this program to support women and also to educate organizations on the pervasiveness of the motherhood penalty. It has been incredibly rewarding to work with the mothers we are supporting and the overwhelmingly positive feedback we have received from organizations.
Starting maternity leave can be a shock to the system for any new Mom who is used to the hustle of career life. Can you share more about the free maternity leave transition plan you created?
The transition plan is really a framework for mothers to have discussions with their employer about what their transition plan to their leave looks like. We provide tools, resources and guidance to mothers about how to have these conversations and what you need to be considering about your leave.
Have you had any obstacles/situations that you have had to overcome since starting up Maturn?
One topic that constantly comes up is “what about men?” We are huge proponents of paternity leave and applaud fathers for taking leave, however, it is still mothers who are disproportionately affected through the motherhood penalty. They tend to take the majority of the leave, go through big identity shifts and are often dealing with emotional, physical and hormonal changes. It’s why we continue to keep our focus on self-identified mothers.
Do you have any advice for the next generation of business women?
Yes, don’t try to do this on your own. I WISH I would have had something like Maturn when I was in the earlier stages of building my family and my career. I made so many mistakes along the way and it honestly took me over a decade to learn the lessons that we highlight in Maturn.
What do you think is one thing women can do more to support each other?
Being real and authentic about the challenges that come with building your career and your family at the same time. It isn’t easy and making everything look like a perfect picture on social media is doing a disservice to all mothers and it’s the reason why so many mothers continue to feel like they’re failing.
Learn More About Maturn Here:
Website: Maturn Canada
Instagram: @maturncanada
Learn More About Pink Tank Group: