I was a volunteer board member for a non-profit organisation.

I was on maternity leave from all my positions (paid and unpaid). The organisation that I volunteered for sent me an email about work that needs to be done LESS than 24 hours after I gave birth while still in the hospital recovering from an emergency c-section. I tried my best to continue to do what was expected of me (that I could do from home) despite being on maternity leave and recovering from the c-section and the hectic life of caring for a newborn baby. I wasn’t as quick to respond to emails or get the work done. I was not able to attend a couple of in-person meetings nor their conference because I was taking care of the baby and they did not offer childcare. This was also while I was on maternity leave from my paid job and my doctor says I need to heal from the c-section.

Today I received an email that was CC’d to the ENTIRE board. The subject line was MY NAME and in the attachment was a Word file documenting a summary of every single e-mail that was sent to me since I gave birth and then shaming me for not responding in a timely manner. They could not understand that I am on maternity leave and the work that I am doing is because I care a lot about the cause! And lets also not forget that this is a volunteer position.

If I was recovering from say heart surgery or any other major surgery they would have probably wished me well and possibly send me a card or flowers as they have when others were dealing with medical issues. I do no expect flowers or even a card but I also do not expect to be shamed for choosing to be on maternity leave. Because my surgery was related to child-birth they felt they could shame me for it or that it wasn’t “as serious”.

I resigned. I do not deserve to be shamed via email to an entire board because things are taking a bit longer for me to do now that I am still recovering from my c-section and have a newborn at home!