Welcome to the first installment of Blackfield’s mini-series where Yasmin Hutchings, Team Manager, interviews some amazing women working in life sciences. Read their fascinating stories and learn how they have navigated working in what is predominantly a male-driven industry.
In this interview, we meet Ann Villegas, a biotechnologist whose career began in 2013 with P&G. Ann transitioned to a printing company before entering the pharmaceutical sector in 2020. She has since been involved in Operations, Production, Process, and Validation roles, has published her book “Becoming a Parent: A Reality Check on Pregnancy, Birth, and Baby’s First Year”, and has recently founded her own AI-driven company, BobiHealth. This innovative app monitors pregnancy symptoms, diet, and concerns of pregnant women, creating a database to track patterns and shed light on common pregnancy complications like preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. We discussed the challenges she faced juggling pregnancy symptoms and loss, all whilst maintaining a successful career and relocating from Germany to the USA.
This is Ann's story
The journey to motherhood can be a challenging one. Ann recounted her five-year journey marked by three losses and the adjustments required in her work environment during this period. A significant life change occurred when Ann’s husband received a compelling job offer in the USA. However, her German degree was less recognized in the States, forcing her to take a position in a photoprinting firm. This job involved long shifts, particularly around holidays, and it was here she suffered her third miscarriage. The stress and lack of support eventually led her to resign.
Soon after this she fell pregnant with her first daughter. She took time out from working to focus on her health and give everything she could to the pregnancy. After delivering a healthy baby, she started to look for roles again. Her career took a positive turn when she joined the Azzur Group, where she worked on validating the production equipment for COVID-19 vaccines.
“This was a project with great impact, also quite a bit of work at the end of the day, we did end up working seven days a week as well. But people are dying. We need to bring the vaccine to the market, so everybody’s just putting in the effort, right?”
During her time at Azzur, Ann became pregnant with her second daughter and was able to work remotely, which was crucial for her to maintain her health and professional performance. Her dedication and ability to manage work and personal life led to a promotion to Operations Manager. After her maternity leave, she returned full-time when her daughter started daycare, supported by her workplace’s flexibility and understanding. Ann and her husband relocated back to Germany in 2023, when an old contact reached out with the idea of BobiHealth, which uses self-reporting and analytics from smart watches to answer some of the questions pregnant women have, help with the worries they face and advise when to reach out to their GP or go to the hospital.
Ann recently gave birth to her 3rd daughter and with this she knew she had to go for the opportunity to be a co-founder and COO of this app. Ann knows that women are dying from treatable pregnancy-related illnesses and that one day her own daughters may face some of these complications. She was therefore compelled to do something to help create a better future.
“We’re trying to bring attention to avoidable maternal and infant deaths and just making pregnancy safer in general.”
The app is now live and is being used by pregnant women in the USA, India, and the Philippines. BobiHealth is hoping for future funding to help develop the app further; currently the team is volunteering their time to the app.
You have worked across two different geographies, the USA and Germany. Do you think there is a big difference in how working mums are treated across both regions?
“I think that there are big differences! There is just a lot more accommodation in Germany.”
In Germany, from the moment you announce your pregnancy, an assessment of safety is carried out concerning the risk of you getting infected with something that could impact your pregnancy. If it is determined that there is a risk then you will stop working on full pay. If the risk is low then you would work until 6-8 weeks before your due date and then you can take up to 3 years off with 1 year paid leave and your company has to guarantee your job back.
In the USA it is very different. Ann had to explain to her manager that her employee could not do overtime and actually she needed to take it easy. For example, she couldn’t be on her feet all day so adjustments had to be made for her to be able to sit down. Even then her employee felt judged by her colleagues, even though she was visually, heavily pregnant. In the USA, it’s very common to work up until the day you go into labour. Women are entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave after having a baby, but if you decide to leave any time before the due date, postpartum you have less time of leave.
There is no time for women to adjust to not only having a new born but also for their bodies to recover. Bigger companies in the USA can offer better packages for pregnant women but smaller companies don’t seem to offer as much, which can be a problem, especially if you are breastfeeding.
“I remember with my first one I went back to work after 10 months, so I was still pumping. And then when I was on site, they didn’t have a room there if you needed a little privacy.”
The space she ended up using to pump at work was just an office room, she did not know how clean it was because people were eating and drinking in there so there was also a concern for safety. She then had to store the milk in containers in a communal fridge, which felt very uncomfortable and she just had to hope that no one would touch it.
Until you experience pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, it’s hard to comprehend all the challenges these bring in a professional working environment.
Ann’s first miscarriages were in Germany, however, the one she had in the USA occurred during the working day. She let her manager know and he allowed her to take the day, but the next day she was back working, having to act like nothing had happened. Luckily it was a quieter time at work but had it been busy, she is unsure how she would have coped.
However, when it comes to the birth, in the USA mothers have their own room (and unlike our NHS, the hospital food is pretty decent), whilst in Germany, mums might have to share with other mothers.
You are clearly a lady who loves a challenge, you just had your third baby and you have launched this new project to create BobiHealth. How are you managing being COO and mother to a newborn?
“So for me, it’s a passion project. I feel like I didn’t have enough support before and during my first pregnancy so if I can help out other women, then I will do that. What we’re doing can support others and help out and especially when you can avoid death, right?”
Ann discussed how recently the maternal death rate in the USA has increased, with all the current advancements in technology you would expect to hear something different but that’s not the case, which is extremely concerning. She told me about how women in the USA don’t feel heard and understood by their doctors. Race and ethnicity also play a big part in this, with a lot of African American and Native American women reporting that they are not being taken seriously.
“By giving women the tools to show there is a trend in the symptoms they are experiencing, we hope that, long-term, we’ll give women the empowerment to go to the doctor and confidently state, ‘ok, this is not normal.”
Ann has 3 daughters: she wants to ensure that they don’t become one of the statistics, and they are one of her primary motivators to make BobiHealth a success.
This is the first time anybody is collecting this type of data in the amount of detail the app will. It could discover early warnings of pre-eclampsia and other life-threatening conditions. The opportunities are endless.
“We hope to prepare the next generation even better for their pregnancies, so that they can be healthier and have a better chance of healthy babies with themselves also remaining healthy during pregnancy and afterwards.”
Do you think there is a way the data from your app can be used to drive cost-savings for employers in the future, as well as better care for employees?”
This is one of the aims of the application, to help support employers and educate them in terms of insurances and other considerations, so hopefully they can offer more custom services to their employees.
“Because if your employee is sick or goes through something like that and won’t return to work, let’s say in that sense, it costs you more than just providing this app where they can monitor their health better and be like, OK, something is up.”
The app can be championed by employers to catch issues before they become life-threatening and the payback to the company for supporting people to use the app is that perhaps they avoid life-long illnesses, which impact their careers and cost companies money and time they have invested in developing their teams.
What has driven you to keep striving to grow and develop and take on this project whilst going through your own personal challenges? For a lot of people the things you have experienced become all-consuming and overwhelming.
“I’ve always had that drive that I wanted to do something impactful, something important.”
Throughout Ann’s career she has always tried to take on roles where she has a positive impact on the world in some form. From personal care products to vaccines, she has always wanted to help people to be happy.
“In the Pharmaceutical industry, you always end up helping people in some way; you find new drugs that you bring on the market and you help the companies get there.”
You have been a driven women in STEM, always looking to be better and have that impact, so a question I always ask is: If you could give your younger self some advice before you started your career, what would it be?
“I would go back and tell myself to be more self-confident and believe in yourself. Don’t get intimidated by all the men around you.”
Sheryl Sandberg said it best in her book, ‘Lean In’ , which Ann read and found it really resonated with her. In Chapter 7 entitled ’Don’t Leave Before You Leave’ she explains:
“What I am arguing is that the time to scale back is when a break is needed or when a child arrives – not before, and certainly not years in advance. The months and years leading up to having children are not the time to lean back, but the critical time to lean in.” (p.95)
Ann said this taught her that even though she knew she was leaving in 2-3 months to have a baby she did not step back, she stepped up. She was present for as long as she was present and when she couldn’t do that, it was time to turn her focus to her upcoming delivery and child.
“You’re going to do the great work until it is your last day because then no one thinks she was just taking a step back. You still want to have that career and you still want to be promoted!”
Just because she has had children and taken time to be with them doesn’t lessen the career she has had. In fact, it enhances it. It’s just as much work raising children! She feels that in her time in management, she was better because she knew how to manage people, after all, that was what she did on a daily basis at home. She planned, she was prepared, she knew how to do it.
It's time for change
We really appreciate Ann sharing her time and experiences with us. Her journey is not only a testament to her resilience and dedication, but also a crucial narrative that highlights the need for systemic changes in how industries and societies support pregnant women and working mothers.
We can have it all, and we will! With the right support professionally and a strong work/life balance, women can succeed, especially when we support each other.
Do you want to work for a recruitment business that supports your career goals, values your contributions and has one of the best parental leave packages in the industry? Contact us today.
