Anne Kansiime has come out to share how she managed to keep her pregnancy low-key including her genius strategy that saw her land a number of endorsements deals in order to keep afloat financially when she was heavy.
This year, Kansiime and her boyfriend, Skylanta, received their first child – a boy, Selassie. He is now 8 months.
The news of her pregnancy took the comedian by surprise considering she had for many years struggled with fertility.
Pregnancy, in the middle of a pandemic, also meant she had to devise a work plan when she still could, physically.
So, she started pitching to brands that deal in products which target households. These included Mukwano Group of Companies, a deal she finally landed.
While appearing on Comedy Store’s The Chill, Kansiime revealed that since she knew she would be heavy and unable to work, she had to schedule her upcoming projects and executed them back-to-back in order to compensate for the months where she needed to rest.
She went into a shooting spree in her fourth month of pregnancy.
“I did as many photo shoots, I did as much content on YouTube and scheduled it for when I knew I would be so heavy,” Kansiime who appeared on the show along with Pablo and Martha Kay, told Alex Muhangi.
“Then I started hunting for work so that I attend meetings before I swell (baby bump). But the work I was hunting for was to be able to endorse companies that want to deal with the family unit and not just an individual,” she added.
This strategy paid off, she said, and their unborn baby was already helping her and Skylanta to pay the bills.
“It helped because I was able to be on leave yet still manage to earn some money. Selassie started to pay our rent before he was even born, which was really beautiful”.
Responding to why she kept her pregnancy from the public, Kansiime said this had to do with how much this meant for her (considering her infertility journey) as well as the pressure that would come with making it public.
“Something (pregnancy) I waited for that long, I needed to hide it. The thing with art (creatives), we don’t have a plan. It’s not like your employer will grant you a maternity leave, or that they will give you a monthly stipend during pregnancy. And on top of that, there was Covid,” she said.
“I was so stressed because I thought I would lose the pregnancy, like it had with previous ones. I was stressed about the pressure I would suffer hiding it, after someone finding out and revealing it. I also needed to do so much work and give myself leave.”
The entertainer says motherhood is “so sweet” especially for someone like her who has had to wait long to have a kid.
During the interview, she bragged about how traveling with her baby during her recent trips such as that in Zambia where she had a show, is a privilege since people are more sympathetic and kinder to her.
However, having a kid has also meant she can no longer take as many gigs as she used to do. This is because she now must travel with the baby and Skylanta and some of the event organizers find themselves not being able to meet these extra expenses.
