Transitioning Work Maternity Leave

From LoveToKnow Pregnancy

Transitioning work maternity leave can be a difficult adjustment, but with some early planning you can accomplish what you need to get done with less stress for both you and your baby.

Going back to work can be easier with proper planning

Components of Transitioning Work Maternity Leave

There are some different factors that come into play when planning your maternity leave and return to work after your baby is born: first, there is the pre-maternity leave planning process; next is how to handle the actual maternity leave; and the last, which may be the toughest, is getting both you and your baby ready for your return to the workplace.

Pre-Maternity Leave Planning

This topic could be an entire article (or small book) itself. For the sake of this article, we’ll look at a few key points. You can look at the end of this article for further resources.

  • The number one best piece of advice when planning your maternity leave is "Be flexible." One common problem that women run into is that they plan for more or, often, less leave than what they end up wanting. If your employer is an understanding sort, you may want to suggest a flexible return plan after your baby is born. This might mean coming back part time at first and full time later. It may mean that if you aren’t ready, you can take another couple of weeks off to be with your baby.
  • Learning how your health insurance covers your baby is important. Will your baby be covered? Will there be a huge deductible? Is there a waiting period? These are great questions to ask your human resource department. Something important to understand is how your insurance works should you decide to not return to work. In some cases, your health insurance may be pro-canceled, meaning you may be stuck with the bill from your baby’s birth of you fail to return to work. Right now, you may be thinking that there’s no way you won’t return to work, but plenty of women change their minds after their baby’s born so it’s better to be prepared.
  • Lining up all your work tasks. Someone will be taking care of your job while you’re on maternity leave. If you can find out who this person is and train them yourself, it’s likely they’ll do a better job of doing your job how you like it to be done. This can save you some headaches upon your return. The last thing you need is to come back and find your clients schedules rearranged and your filing cabinets out of whack.

Staying in Touch During Maternity Leave

This is a fairly easy part of transitioning work maternity leave. If you are going back to work after six weeks or so, it can be good to check in from time to time just to keep up with what’s going on at the office. Don’t call or visit too often though. Maternity leave is when you need to rest and spend time with your baby. Answering work emails is not the best use of your time. Sleep comes to mind as a better option. Baby bonding is important, so use your time to drink in that adorable baby. Work will still (in almost all cases) be there and kicking at normal speed when you go back.

Set your email on auto answer and forward messages to whomever is filling in for you. Leave a nice voice mail on your phone with the contact info for your supervisor and, again, the person filling in for you.

Getting Ready to Go Back

This is often the hardest part of transitioning work maternity leave. Many women may feel guilty or not ready to go back. If you really love your job or need to return because it’s not the right time to be out of work, there are ways to prepare you and your baby.

  • Breastfeeding prep: If you’re going to be breastfeeding, it’s best to get a great breast pump before your baby is born and start pumping about three to four weeks before you go back to work. This will allow you to build up plenty of breast milk reserves for your baby. This also gets your body used to pumping milk, which is very different for some women than breastfeeding. You’ll also want to make sure you have plenty of breast pads to take to work – the last thing you need is to leak breast milk during a big meeting.
  • Baby prep: If you are exclusively breastfeeding, you’ll want to give your baby some breast milk in a bottle about two weeks before you go back – just be sure breastfeeding is well established first. This will allow your baby to get used to bottle feeding. Another baby prep chore is finding proper child day care. This is an in-depth process but Child Care Aware and Parenthood.com offer just about everything you need to find the best care possible.
  • Prepping yourself: At least a week before you return to work, you’ll need to find a way to turn over nighttime baby care to someone else. If this is impossible, try to get your baby on some sort of sleep schedule so you can be well rested for your return to work. If you haven’t spent any time away from your baby, try to get out while your baby stays with your partner. This can benefit and prepare both of you.

Further Resources

Making the transition from work to baby and back again can be hard. The more planning you do and resources you have the better. Take a look at the following helpful articles:

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