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“Between my mom and Amaya, they’ve been very helpful in letting me come back to basketball,” she tells PEOPLE. “I went back and forth with myself for the longest time about if I wanted to actually play this season or wait it out. As much as I enjoy being a mom, as I sat around, I got bored. I was like, ‘There’s no way I can sit out a whole season.’ I haven’t missed a season yet, thankfully, even with both pregnancies.”
As a mom who is pumping, she’s relied onWillowas her pump of choice to help her keep up with her demanding schedule.
“I nursed my daughter for 11 months but Legend’s journey has been a little different. I’m still nursing and doing what I can with the supply that I have,” she shares. “I struggled a little bit more with him, I would say, due to the stress. There’s a lot of moving parts, so I reached out to Willow after researching brands I wanted to pump with this go around.
“The flexibility these little pumps have allowed for me and my life is awesome. To be able to grab and be in the car and be able to pump while I take phone calls is amazing. The flexibility wasn’t necessarily there with my first child, with whom I had to kind of manually pump.”
“Back then they didn’t have the quality of pumps that they have now. So I reached out to Willow and felt aligned in purpose. I wanted to speak up about what they already were in the works of doing, with the PUMP Act.”
The PUMP Act, passed in late April, expands on the 2010 Fair Labor Standards Act to protect nearly 9 million nursing mothers who previously weren’t entitled to break time and a space to pump. It also gives employees the ability to go after financial compensation and other remedies if their employers aren’t complying and clarifies that time spent pumping counts as time worked for minimum wage and overtime calculations. It additionally reinforces that women need both sufficient time to pump as well as a clean and private space.
“Willow was naturally aligned with my goals and very supportive in helping me, but also finding ways to support this league, which is also very important to me.”
“I always talk about how my first child, she taught me to appreciate life more and to not take things for granted. My personality has been very people-pleasing my entire life. I feel like this situation during my second pregnancy, and my son himself, have taught me to stick up for myself,” she tells PEOPLE.
“Overall I think working moms in our field, in my profession, aren’t so common. It’s a humbling experience but I’m taking on trying to help women embrace the role of being a mom and being able to work and be successful at both.”
“I want more kids, I want to be able to do that and still continue to play basketball and a high level. And I am, which is pretty cool.”
“I’m just excited to be back playing basketball and to have Legend be a part of it,” she says of the season ahead. “I’m excited to be in L.A. and have a fresh start. Throughout my career, I’ve taken a backseat and put other people’s priorities above mine. As a teammate, you should do that, but for the first time in my career, I’m going to be able to put my priorities first. L.A. is embracing me and my kids and I’m excited to be here.”
source: people.com
