Dear Daughter,
You’ve only blown the candles on your 18th birthday cake. Reading on, you may say, “Chill mum, hold off the baby talk, I’ve a long way to  get there.” Sure you do. That’s the point of this letter. To make clear you retain that future right to decide when to welcome motherhood. Not family or friends. Or, company.

A company can’t dictate to you, no matter what delicious deal they dangle before the sharpest set-on-career eyes. Today it’s Facebook and Apple paying up to $20,000 to keep women staffers “unpregnant”. Tomorrow a bunch more will urge: wait it out, freeze those eggs, control-climb that work ladder. I think there’s a limit to plotting and planning.