Project Management View of Pregnancy

A project, by definition, is a temporary activity with a starting date, specific goals and conditions, defined responsibilities, a fixed end date and multiple parties involved. You know what you have to do, do it, once, and that’s the end of it. That’s a project. While pregnancy can fit into the general idea of a project, it is a nightmare of a project from a project management point of view.

Here are some components of a project and how they apply to pregnancy:

• Starting date
  You may not even know the starting date until you are already partly into the project. The project may or may not have been initiated or planned, and you can never know for sure how long the project initiation may take. Miscarriage rate in the 1st trimester is conservatively estimated at about 20% to 25%, after all.

• Specific goals and conditions
  Goals and conditions can be numerous and detailed, or general and vague depending on the stakeholders involved, personalities, cultures, and other conditions. In other words, these are highly personal and circumstances can change not only from person to person, but also from pregnancy to pregnancy. One pregnancy is no indicator or predictor for the next.
• Fixed end date
  There is no set end date for this. It can end with or without your control, or be planned to the minutia.

• Defined resources and responsibilities
  There can be one or many, depending on various environmental, social, cultural context. Again, it depends.
• Budget
  It depends …
• Stakeholders
  Varies — can be 1 person to many, even involving institutions. Sometimes in-laws and family members can always throw you a curve ball, or even some negative emotions to stir the pot.

What does this all mean? You can’t project manage a pregnancy! To manage a pregnancy, one will have to tame the control freak within oneself.