As far as Nora Millison is concerned, she had no choice but to postpone the birth of her first child for five weeks. Her company – Morkin/Weaver of Kansas City – was depending on her team to bring its important Placate II initiave to completion, and as team leader she felt honor-bound to do so.
“When I found out I was pregnant we still had six months to finish and that should have been plenty of time,” says the senior classification director. “But then there were all these delays, mostly caused by the regulations and practicality units.” Before she knew it, the baby’s June 21 due date was a week and a half away.
Knowing it was going to take at least six more weeks to finish Placate II, she made the decision to postpone. Giving birth can mean as little as two or three days off work, but that wasn’t an option for Millison.
“I’m not in a position to even take two or three hours,” she says. “Unexpected things keep popping up and need to be addressed.” As an example, she cites a stability tracker’s miscalculation of a regional numeric – something nobody noticed until she caught it.
“Postpoing the birth for a few weeks was the only responsible course of action,” says Millison.
Because of the pressures of the project, she hasn’t had time to set up a nursery, think of names, or even check on the baby’s gender. “What I can tell you,” she says, “is that on July 26 I’ll be delivering Placate II at noon and delivering the baby at 2 PM.”
She’ll take a day or two off, she says, and then start on Placate III.
