Working Mothers in the Pandemic: More Essential than we think
Amidst the pandemic, medical workers are being relied on heavily. For Christina Walsh, this means 30 hours of overtime weekly, and seeing her children for only 4 hours a week.
By Austin Waymire
If there was an award for mother of the year, Christina Walsh would be amongst the top candidates. Chris is a 54-year old mother to four children, and dedicated worker at two different jobs based in Lincoln, CA. You’d think Chris has a lot on her plate with this information, yet she is now forced to pack more on to that same plate. With the arrival of the pandemic, Chris’s duties are called upon even further.
According to data collected by John Hopkins University, the US set a new record for coronavirus infections on Nov. 12, with 144,133. In totality, California has accounted for more than a million of all positive cases in the United States since the start of the coronavirus, per the New York Times daily updated COVID-19 map and case count.
How does this translate to the life of medical workers? For Chris Walsh, who has two jobs in the medical field, it means diligent work and extensive hours.
“I work two jobs, I am an EMT on an ambulance, working 12 hour shifts. And I am also an emergency room technician in the emergency department. Those would be 8 hour shifts.”
When you bring together those two occupations together with a high number of COVID-19 cases in the United States, the result is a heavy reliance on medical workers.
Chris is counted on to work a plethora of hours away from her family.
“Those two jobs overlap all the time. The ambulance job has always been 12 hour or 24 hour shifts. Always odd shifts. So, when you worked over, it was another 24 hour shift. When you agree to work extra, you’re staying for another 12–24 hours, depending on what shift you were on.”
When asked for an average number of working hours throughout the week, Chris gave a remarkable number.
“I would say I probably work 60–70 hours a week.”
Chris Walsh spends a large majority of her time helping patients. If you do the math, Chris is spending almost half of her week at work, around 41%. When you account for her 4 children at home, this could be especially detrimental.
Historically, women have been primary caretakers of their children. According to Nicole Bateman and Martha Ross, mothers working full-time spend about 50% more time each day caring for children than fathers working full-time. But COVID-19 and the uncertainty around childcare has increased the burden, per their article: “Why has COVID-19 been especially harmful for working women?”
“It’s definitely tougher around the house with our mom gone so much. The house gets messy, and honestly just spins out of chaos. My younger siblings will argue a lot and there’s nobody there to really stop it.”
19 year-old Connor Walsh, Chris’ son, notices the toll taken on him and his siblings when their mother is gone. When asked how often he might see his mom during the week, Connor replies:
“Probably 4 hours out of the week. She works 16 hours a day, and she works mostly graveyard shifts: 5pm to 5am or later.”
“-I definitely notice a toll taken on her. She comes home everyday tired and sore, considering she is working for 16 hours a day.”
With the children in school and Chris gone at work for most of the week, her role as a mother in a household of 4 kids might be hard to fulfill.
With all of that said, it is hard to leave out the idea of safety. As an EMT and emergency room technician, Chris says she is around COVID-19 patients a lot of the time.
Senior Faculty Editor at Harvard Health Publishing, Robert H. Shmerling, MD, says in his article “What’s it like to be a healthcare worker in a pandemic?” that being a healthcare worker brings new challenges like heightened risk of infection, possibility of bringing the infection home to loved ones, unusually high and increasing demands of hours, and a much larger commitment to balancing their own health along with others.
When asked about her health at work, Chris had a direct answer:
“I feel unsafe now, I never used to.”
Working 30 hours of medical overtime in a global pandemic brings a sense of safety that hadn’t been as valued as before. The importance of safety is recognized by her son as well, as Connor says:
“Sometimes my siblings and I worry for her safety since she spends a lot of time around [COVID-19] patients, which then makes us worry that we might get sick if she comes home with it too.”
Ultimately, Christina Walsh exceeds the idea of a working mother, and brings a new perspective to what an essential worker might look like during the pandemic. Enduring extensive work hours in an effort to help fight the pandemic, while at the same time risking her and her family’s health and remaining away from her kids for a large portion of the week.
As Robert H. Shmerling, MD, puts it in the same article, take a moment to recognize the healthcare workers you know personally or see for medical care. Dealing with this pandemic is not easy for anyone, but it’s especially hard on healthcare workers.
