Becoming a parent is a huge change for those of us working in the Live Music Industry.
For most of us, our job is our passion. We quite often freelance and have no steady monthly income. We work weird hours, and often a break is something you can only dream of.
For somebody who loves touring, crowded festivals and perhaps winding down in the bar after a gig, it might feel like you have to let all that go when kids come into the picture – not to mention how on earth would you be able to work those crazy hours whilst being pregnant or breastfeeding a little baby?
So what if you make the decision that you can do this? How will your co-workers, employers etc react? We hear so much about ‘rejection’ from our beloved industry, when someone announces their pregnancy, both on stage and behind the stage. This is leading to many choosing to hide their pregnancy.
We can only imagine that if you don’t have any visible role models, who can show you how it actually works, or people in your surroundings that you could turn to with questions and thoughts on how to figure things out, it can seem extremely overwhelming becoming a mum in the live music industry.
In 2020 WILM released the report “Motherhood combined with a career in the Live Music Industry”
Out of 300+ respondents (both crew and musicians), 85% of the mums asked said they have been able to return to work after having children. However, we know full well how lonely it can be to be a woman in this industry. We can only imagine that for a mother or mother-soon-to-be it could be even more isolating.
When WILM’s own graphic designer, Anna spoke out about the need for someone in the industry to toss and turn thoughts with during her pregnancy, it lit the spark to finally take this into action and start a community to unite crew-mums from all over, cause we all know that sharing is caring – so here we go! (p.s We welcome artists as well!)
Please sign up below to our mailing list. We will then make sure to invite you to a monthly meeting online, where you can share your story and experiences – ask questions and cry out if needed. You will be among other women from the industry that can relate to how you are feeling.
We will also make sure to invite you to our private Facebook Group, where you can interact with the other mums in this group on a daily basis.
