Wonderful News For Marissa Mayer

In a blog post Tuesday, Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer announced that she is pregnant — with twins! "With great happiness, Zack and I have some exciting news to share – I’m pregnant! In fact, I'm expecting identical twin girls, likely arriving in December," Mayer wrote on Tumblr, referencing her husband Zachary Bogue. Mayer and Bogue already have a two-year-old, Macallister Bogue.

Mayer, who has been CEO of Yahoo since 2012, continued:

The twins part was quite a surprise, because I have no family history of twins or any other predisposing factors. However, as I've now learned, identical twins occur by random chance in roughly 1 out of approximately every 300 pregnancies. Zack and I have embraced the surprise and are very excited about these new additions to our family.

Since my pregnancy has been healthy and uncomplicated and since this is a unique time in Yahoo's transformation, I plan to approach the pregnancy and delivery as I did with my son three years ago, taking limited time away and working throughout. I've shared the news and my plans with Yahoo's Board of Directors and my executive team, and they are incredibly supportive and happy for me. I want to thank them for all of their encouragement as well as their offers of help and continued support.

Leading Yahoo in our renaissance, alongside a terrific and dedicated team, has given me tremendous professional pride in our accomplishments. I've never been more excited about our progress and the growth opportunities for our amazing company. At the same time, I'm blessed to have experienced some of my most extraordinary and proudest personal moments while being Yahoo's CEO. Moving forward, there will be a lot to do for both my family and for Yahoo; both will require hard work and thoughtful prioritization. However, I'm extremely energized by and dedicated to both my family and Yahoo and will do all that is necessary and more to help both thrive. The future looks extremely bright on both fronts.

It's no coincidence that Mayer chose to specifically outline her plans at Yahoo when announcing the pregnancy. Weeks after giving birth to Macallister, and having worked throughout her pregnancy, Mayer was back at work at Yahoo; at the time, she was criticized by some for setting a poor example for the company's 12,000-plus employees. However, although Mayer has heavily restricted remote work for Yahoo employees — drawing condemnation from those who felt that this left parents behind — she has significantly extended both maternity and paternity leave for those who work there.

In the blog post, Mayer addressed this head-on: "Moving forward, there will be a lot to do for both my family and for Yahoo; both will require hard work and thoughtful prioritization," she explained, implicitly shutting down the inevitable sexist questions about whether she'll be able to be a mom of three and remain head honcho at Yahoo. "I've never been more excited about our progress and the growth opportunities for our amazing company," Mayer continues.