The retention strategy no one talks about: Maternal wellness expert, Marcella Kelson, on keeping high-performing moms in the workforce

If there is one thing I hear from ambitious working moms over and over again, it’s “why does it feel so hard to make a career and motherhood work together?” And honestly, I get it. The expectations keep rising, the systems have not caught up, and the mental load is never ending.  

That is exactly why I am so excited to bring conversations like this one to our Corporate MomSense community: real talk with people who don’t just understand our world, but help shape solutions for it.  

Today, I am sitting down with Marcella Kelson, MSc, LMSW, a maternal wellness and parenting expert who spends her days inside the realities of modern working motherhood. She is someone who blends deep psychological training with a grounded, tell‑it‑like‑it‑is understanding of what corporate moms are actually navigating.  

At PeopleSense, Marcella partners with us to support ambitious moms across organizations through monthly group sessions, workshops, and 1:1 coaching for mothers returning to work—a phase that can feel equal parts exciting and overwhelming. She also helps companies understand what an asset working moms are. Because retaining high‑performing moms isn’t a “nice to have,” it’s a business strategy. And Marcella has a front‑row seat to what actually moves the needle. 

Listen to the full conversation at the audio link below or continue reading for key takeaways from the transcript and 5 ways to apply Marcella’s insights to your work today!

Q: When you look at today’s working mom compared to even five years ago, what feels fundamentally different? 

Marcella: 
Well, five years ago was COVID, so very different. I think that COVID gave us an opportunity to reflect on what happens when you are home, and what it feels like to be more involved on a day‑to‑day basis with the more granular aspects of parenting for working moms. So I think that the transition out of that state has been a push and pull, right? It's wanting to feel like you are in flow at work and you're fully committed to what you're doing, but also recognizing and being able to really understand the sacrifices that are being made when it comes to time with children. So, I think what's really interesting in this moment is just the mindfulness and the intention in which people manage their schedule and their time. 

And really wanting the opportunity to reflect on how any given work week feels, not just what your schedule looks like, but how it actually feels to go through those days. And I think working mothers in the workplace are cognizant of how time management can actually allow for a lot of presence in lots of different forms. 

So I think what's really shifting is the intentionality and the reflection, and the wish to be present both at work and at home in a way that I don't think pre‑COVID it was as much of a priority. 

Kate: 
I will say that today being a snow day is very reminiscent of the COVID days where we're trying to figure out how to manage childcare and also perform at work in our home office. 

Marcella: 
Yes. Yes. Yes. 

Q: Can you describe the work you do? Whether it’s coaching or organizational strategy, what kinds of solutions are you actually building for mother’s and for companies? 

Marcella: 
At the end of the day, what we're really trying to do is trying to make sure that people are not leaving positions that they would otherwise be really happy to stay in because they feel like there is an inflexibility or an intolerance to different approaches to being present. So I think that my goal is always to help companies keep their talent by helping them understand the big picture accommodations that they can make that would make a really big difference to working moms that they don't really realize make a big difference. 

And in the end, you know, when somebody leaves their job and HR is trying to understand like what happened here, where was the breakdown in communication, it's really helping that experience feel more like a reflective process of what did we learn? What do we want to make sure we offer in the future so that we don't have people leaving for challenging commute times or with workarounds that are really sort of non‑impactful from a bottom line perspective for the company side, but would make a huge impact for that really valued employee. So it's helping bridge communication so that breakdowns don't happen unnecessarily. 

Kate: 
From personal experience, the value that you've had on my career journey and figuring out how to find a place that respects the fact that I'm a mom, asking for what I need, feeling like I have a space to feel safe and rally behind other ambitious moms that also are navigating the same challenges and wanting to perform at work, but also being a good mom and making sure that we're there for our kids. 

That's been the most impactful part of your solution for me personally. And so, yeah, I just wanted to double click on that because I can't say enough amazing things about the way that you have really influenced my ability to grow as a leader. 

And then also my responsibility as a leader to help the next generation, the moms that are having kids now so that I can bring the lessons that I learned and give it to them as well. 

Marcella: 
Yeah. Mothers are such high performers and we have data to back this up. And it's very interesting to think about in the grand scheme of things, if you have a really committed employee who is a high performer, who is really showing up in so many ways, the grand scheme of those years in parenting where you need to make more accommodations, it's not very long, right? So you, as an employer, it's important to think big picture. Even if, you know, for a couple of years, more accommodations need to be made, in the grand scheme of things, they more than pay off in retaining that really valuable employee. 

So it's important to help everybody think big picture, even for the employee to be able to say, look, if you need to ask for more flexibility on arrival time—this is a silly thing—but so that they're not sitting in traffic, wasting that time that they could be taking a call from home. 

That's such a small moment in time in the grand scheme of your career. And I think being able to think about things and zoom out a little bit versus worrying about the day‑to‑day impact these busy moments in life have, I think that's advantageous to everybody involved. 

Q: Among the ambitious high‑performing moms you work with, what themes or tensions are surfacing again and again? 

Marcella: 
So I think when there isn't clear communication from a corporate level, from the employee‑employer relationship, what happens is there's a lot of internalized guilt. I think when you spend too much time in your head as an employee, not being able to communicate day‑to‑day problems, it starts to feel like you're stuck in a situation that you can't get out of. And so one of my big concerns is that there's such a pervasive feeling of guilt for not being present enough as a parent and not being present enough as an employee. And how does communication offer real solutions for that? 

And what is it that you need to shape and reframe to understand the value that you're bringing in both situations? And what can you let go of in that reframing that allows you to feel like enough? Because I think the constant feeling of not enoughness will cause anyone to burn out. 

So it's really helping people reframe. It's also helping people with practical day‑to‑day problem‑solving like time management. Let's look at your week. Let's make sure that your week reflects the most effective use of your time, both at home and at work. And that doesn't mean all of that time has to be productive. It means that all of that time is considered and aligns with your highest values. 

It's a lot of meeting intuition with practicality, which is challenging but brings wonderful solutions when you get good at it and get good at quickly addressing issues as they come up, which is part of the importance of communication. 

I think the most common day‑to‑day issue is feeling like you're having to choose between things like taking your child to the pediatrician, especially with school closures being so frequent. Pre‑COVID, it wasn't as clear that if your kid had a cold, you don't take them to daycare. That shift has put way more pressure on working moms and parents in general. 

We're also spending less time in schools. There are systemic changes creating more pressure. It's helping working moms understand that the pressure is new and our strategies need to reflect changing times. 

And it's not a personal reflection of who they are—it’s systemic: not enough childcare, not consistent childcare, with consistently demanding jobs. 

Kate: 
Yeah. The other thing I just want to add on to it as a theme from the sessions that I've experienced and that have been so impactful for me is navigating different childhood milestones because they also impact performance at work. Like I think about sleeping for example and how to manage if your kid is up all night but you still have to perform at work the next day. Different changes in feeding. I remember we even had a session around navigating how to talk to our kids about death, for example, because my children had a lot of curiosity around it.  

But the reason it actually is so helpful to have this conversation is because these are the things that when you think about mental load that I have to think about in addition to wanting to perform at work. 

So having that time to hear ideas, solutions, talk to other moms about how they're navigating these different milestones as well as the mental load has, you know, been a really big part of why I love your sessions so much.  

Marcella: 
The community piece is so important. Seeing that other moms are dealing with the same things—how they deal with guilt, lack of sleep, different approaches to sleep training or routines—helps. 

There's so much information that you're inundated with on a daily basis, right? But then you're under connected from an emotional support standpoint and especially if you're busy working, you're not meeting other moms. You don't actually have that many reference points. Sometimes you have boomer parents as your reference points, which are completely outdated because the context has changed so much. So then, you know, you're hearing your parents say, well, this was never a problem for me. And then you're internalizing that as like, I'm creating problems that shouldn't exist in parenting.  

We're now in a world of diminishing returns—the amount of information we have is working against us. It's about learning not to overexpose yourself to information that doesn't feel right. 

That's why the groups are so helpful because rather than spending your time after you've put your kids down scrolling Instagram and looking at like bento boxes that other moms have made when your kid won't even eat like, you know, a single meal a day. Rather than spending the time there, you're actually harnessing your attention, making sure that you're writing that list so that when we are meeting one-on-one or when we are meeting in groups, you're getting real information from a developmental expert. 

Kate:
I think sometimes I actually feel like I'm lucky that I had my first baby 10 years ago because I didn't have all of this to compare. And to look at and feel like I need to do all of this differently.  

Marcella:
Totally! It's so much pressure to perform. And it's crazy how parenting has become a sport, like a performance sport where you rank yourself against other parents. And I think we have a lot of control over that. I just don't think we know that yet, right? Because social media takes control of your attention and it takes control of your framework. So it's really teaching people how to take that control back and make sure that how they're spending their time and attention is really giving them a sense of feeling more valuable rather than less. 

Q: What are the companies that you are supporting doing differently to support working moms? What sets them apart? 

Marcella: 
I think it's enthusiasm. It's enthusiasm and recognition for the value a working mom brings that is unique to that identity. The ability to manage many moving parts is a muscle strengthened in motherhood. You see that in performance and the value that employee brings. Organizations that recognize this value invest back in that person. Some companies don't make you feel comfortable even saying you're a parent. 

What's changing is seeing parenthood not as something that works against you but as part of your superpower. If we can support that identity, that support comes back to the organization. Everybody wins. 

Q: Are there specific resources you recommend for companies looking to better support working moms? 

Marcella: 
Oh my gosh, I'm going through my list of tools, but the thing is, you have to think about the fact that any given conversation, let's say a group where you have 10 employees on the call and we're talking about, okay, I'm having trouble with starting solids. I'm having trouble with managing daycare schedules and the amount of resources you have to pull in to get it right the first try, like to make sure of the efficiency of the time you're putting in, it's a lot of resources, right?  

So just off the top of my head, one easy option is Solid Starts. It's an amazing app I recommend to companies who want to support new parents. Feeding your children is a basic need worth recognizing. Offering something like this saves parents from having to buy books or aggregate information themselves. 

That's an example of a resource I’d suggest to a company that doesn't have a ton of resources to invest in private groups or coaching but wants to give something back. 

I mean there's a ton of resources that I am happy to put a resource list together but we would be here for days talking about you know the sleep resources, the feeding resources, the physical development resources, what is OT, what is ADHD, how do you navigate private versus public systems, how do you navigate daycare versus private childcare... there's so many different challenges to navigate. 

Kate: 
Well I do want to shout out that one of our sessions taught us about OT and at the time my son had a fear of buttons. We went through the OT program and yesterday he wore a button‑down and blazer at church. 

Marcella: 
I think about the real‑life challenge that presents. If every morning before school your child has a uniform and you anticipate a strong reaction—that affects you everywhere. 

There are ways to address it, often covered by insurance. Helping parents navigate tools they don't even know exist is important. And I'm so glad he's a button fan now—it will make his life so much easier. 

Hearing these things—like “this is actually common”—also helps. Parents often think their kid is the only one. Knowing there are strategies and tools is essential. 

Q: What moments or chapters in your life shaped your passion for this work? 

Marcella: 
I began working in child and adolescent psychiatry after grad school and realized a lot of what I was seeing with children came from parents who were under‑resourced. 

That's not blaming the parent—it’s systemic. I could do three therapy sessions a week with a child, but if the parent feels under‑resourced and can't keep up with development and challenges, that's not going to help that child thrive. 

So I went back to school, and got another master's in child development to understand typical and atypical development. Then I got excited about empowering women—helping them understand their identity as parents and giving them the resources to manage parenthood, but also to realize they have the option to live their life in whatever capacity feels right. So whether that's, you know, having a job as well as the full-time job of parenting, I want people to feel like that is an option for them if they want it because they have these tools.  

It's a marriage of all these curiosities that has created my maternal wellness approach, you know the one-on-one perspective, the sort of overall education perspective, but then also the group perspective. And then I've also had my own health challenges in my life. I was diagnosed with breast cancer when my daughter was an infant, she was three months old. And that was another period of immense learning as to how to help women navigate health challenges while working and so there's a lot of parts that are really challenging, and I just like to see challenges as opportunities to grow and to educate and to feel empowered. 

There's been lots of different periods of my own life that have informed the work, which I think makes it more powerful and accessible. So it's been a lot of different factors, and it’s very human and very embracing of the different identities that we have and believing that those things are possible together. 

Kate: 
I mean, that's so beautiful. And that's why you're so good at what you do because you're pulling from personal experiences for your why. And that's also of course, why Corporate MomSense is so important to me because I pull from what it means to be an ambitious working mom. 

Marcella: 
Thank you for having me. I'm so glad we had this conversation and I appreciate all the work you do. 

Here are a few simple, real‑life ways you can apply Marcella’s wisdom right now: 

Because at the end of the day, you don’t need to overhaul your life—you just need a few intentional tweaks, clearer conversations, and the right kind of support. And as Marcella reminds us, when ambitious moms feel resourced, everyone wins.