She Held Her Baby and Her Dream—At the Same Time, with Grit

Tell me what do you see in this picture?

When I first saw this photo, I couldn’t stop myself from writing about the inspiring story of grit and perseverance of a woman—a mother.

It’s a photo of my friend at her convocation. She’s holding her newborn in one arm while receiving the top academic honor. Everyone was applauding her academic excellence—top of her class in a master’s program in IT.

But I saw something else.

Photo credit: Husband.

I saw a woman holding her dream and her baby at the same time. I saw a story that rarely gets told. It is a story of grit and the beautiful strength of a woman who refused to choose between her dreams and her motherhood.

We talk so much about ambition, hustle, and balance, but no one really prepares you for the raw truth of what it takes to live it all at once.

She did.

During her recovery after childbirth, she was on eight painkillers a day. Eight. Not to rest, but just to stay functional enough to keep going. Her body had torn—not just literally. Hormones wreaked havoc in ways most people can’t see. There was brain fog, sleep deprivation, and waves of emotional overwhelm that came without warning.

And yet, every night, she stood.

Yes, she stood.

For a whole month, she couldn’t sit because of the pain.

So, she would stand, holding her baby in one arm and working on her thesis with the other.

We romanticize the phrase “She did it all.” But I don’t think we fully grasp the cost of it.

Her three-month maternity leave from her job was not a pause. She was still in survival mode, juggling coursework, feeding schedules, sleepless nights, two kids, and a house that didn’t stop needing her.

There were no days off.

No room for error.

No “calling in sick.”

Just this relentless determination to not fall behind.

Not lose ground.

And yet, she didn’t just stay afloat.

She soared.

Straight A’s, a demanding work schedule and through it all, a baby who will one day grow up knowing that their mother was a warrior long before anyone clapped for her.

Let’s Talk About What We Don’t Talk About

I study growth mindset. Human behavior. Resilience. And her story makes me curious: What makes some people push through, even when their body is screaming to stop?

There’s a kind of power in women that rarely gets named. It’s not just grit or ambition. It’s endurance with purpose, the kind that comes from loving deeply, dreaming wildly, and refusing to shrink.

What we also don’t realize is that when a woman gives birth, it’s not just a baby that’s born, but a whole new identity is.

• According to Dr. Sarah Buckley, childbirth causes a drop of 100-fold in estrogen and progesterone within 24 hours, making it the largest hormonal shift the human body can experience.

• MRI scans show that gray matter in a woman’s brain reduces in size postpartum, not as damage, but as adaptation (Hoekzema et al., Nature Neuroscience).

• Physically, recovery can take up to a year, depending on trauma during delivery (Harvard Health Publishing).

And yet—we expect women to “bounce back” in weeks. To be presentable. Productive. On time. In control. At work. As if nothing changed. As if they didn’t just go through the most transformative event of their life.

Is the Workplace Struggle Really Equal?

We like to say the playing field is even. That merit wins. But here’s the hard truth: men and women are not playing the same game.

• A study by the Harvard Business Review found that women are 3.5 times more likely to be perceived as less committed after having a child, even though there’s no change in their performance.

  
  

But the reality is, motherhood doesn’t diminish intelligence. It deepens it. Empathy grows. Prioritization sharpens. Time becomes sacred.

Yet how often do we acknowledge that as leadership material?

This Is More Than a Photo, It’s a Mirror

It made me ask:

• How many women are doing the impossible quietly?

• How many are achieving while healing?

• How many are performing at a high level while carrying invisible pain?

• And how many are doubting themselves because the world doesn’t see their worth unless it's wrapped in performance?

We often say “She did it all” as a compliment. But maybe we should stop glorifying doing it all and start questioning why women are expected to.

And to every woman who is walking through pain, carrying life, holding it all together while building something of her own:

You are proof that strength isn’t loud. Sometimes, it’s silent and sleepless and stubbornly alive.

You are the story. And it’s one worth telling loudly, truthfully, and without shame.

If this moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Like, comment, share and subscribe.

Tell me in the comments: What silent strength have you witnessed or lived that the world needs to know about?