Peace for the World World ! Your War Our Lives
The Dalai Lama
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Sunday, October 28, 2012
Parenting
On The Frontline: When The War Correspondent Became A Mother
For the first eight months, I
hid my pregnancy from my bosses, terrified it would spell the end of my career
as a foreign correspondent. I simply didn’t know any other women in the field
with children. I flew to London for job interviews wearing loose-fitting clothes
to hide my burgeoning bump. Being based in Malaysia for the BBC at the time made
it a lot easier to keep secret from my employers, though I had to be careful
about inhaling too much teargas in the weekly opposition street protests. Only
when I was offered a role as a roving reporter in Europe did I come clean, since
by then I was no longer legally allowed to fly.
Frances Harrison
For the first eight months, I
hid my pregnancy from my bosses, terrified it would spell the end of my career
as a foreign correspondent. I simply didn’t know any other women in the field
with children. I flew to London for job interviews wearing loose-fitting clothes
to hide my burgeoning bump. Being based in Malaysia for the BBC at the time made
it a lot easier to keep secret from my employers, though I had to be careful
about inhaling too much teargas in the weekly opposition street protests. Only
when I was offered a role as a roving reporter in Europe did I come clean, since
by then I was no longer legally allowed to fly.
The
reaction from colleagues was a little disturbing. One male journalist admitted
he’d always assumed I couldn’t have children because I’d left it so late (34
years). Female colleagues muttered in corridors, asking how I was going
to manage such a demanding job and a child.
I
had indeed delayed getting pregnant because it seemed impossible to combine with
foreign reporting, but a rebellious streak in me felt missing out on having
children was too high a price to pay for an exciting career, and not fair on my
husband.
Two
months after giving birth, I was posted as the BBC correspondent to Sri Lanka, which was in the
midst of a vicious civil war. I’d seen my fair share of horror, poverty and
bearded men with guns, but this time I found myself packing milk bottles and
washable nappies as well as a flak jacket, helmet and first aid kit. It was the
start of a double life as foreign correspondent and mother.
We
arrived in Sri Lanka in 2000, just
after the BBC’s local reporter in Jaffna had been killed in a grenade attack on
his home in a government-controlled town. It is a murder that remains
unsolved, like many others in Sri Lanka over the decades. One of my first tasks
was to work out what to do about his widow, still numb with shock, and her three
young children. My baby grew into a toddler while my colleague’s terrified
family waited to escape abroad to start all over again on icy shores.
