Maternity leave creates a host of emotions for all parents. It’s precious time with your sweet baby, but you might miss your professional life too. Whether you’re ready to clock back into work or not, the transitionary period may feel bumpy if you don’t know what to expect. Check out everything you need to know about returning to work after maternity leave to set healthy expectations and experience a smooth return as a family.
1. Remember Your Long-Term Plan
Parents of newborns often mark the time in terms of what they should be doing. You should be prepping your child’s next bottle, providing skin-to-skin contact, doing the laundry and more. When you get back to a work routine, it’s equally important to remember your why.
Why did you choose your job and why did you start your career? Reflect on your long-term dreams for your professional life. If you start feeling nervous about going back to work, use your dreams as motivation. If anything, it could be the best way to set your family up for financial success and a comfortable life.
2. Read About Working Parent Guilt
It’s easier to cope with the guilt of not being a stay-at-home parent if you know you’re not alone. Research shows feeling guilty about returning to work affects moms across the world, even if they already have one or more kids. Wanting to do right by your child is a natural desire, but the best thing might be working to pay for the life you want to give them.
If your guilt feels too overwhelming, remember to let it out. Talk with a therapist or journal about it. Even talking with a partner or best friend might help you feel better just because you addressed what’s on your mind.
3. Find Your Parental Boundaries
You may have never had a work routine where you have a child to consider. Boundaries are essential when a little one is relying on you for everything. Your new boundaries as a parent might include leaving work fifteen minutes earlier to pick your baby up from their childcare provider or always taking a call when it’s your nanny.
Returning to work after maternity leave is a daily process. You won’t have all the answers on the first day, just like you won’t know all your new boundaries immediately. Give yourself time to adjust and grow into your new work life as a parent. You’ll know what to accept or say no to as your parental identity becomes more solid.
3. Set New Goals
Most people have short-term or long-term goals, but new parents should have at least some goals for their daily lives. That might be taking bathroom breaks more frequently, checking in with what your body needs or contacting childcare only twice a day to check in with your baby.
Your new goals might also apply to your social life. If there’s a workplace happy hour, focus on socializing with prepared conversation starters instead of grabbing a drink if that makes you uncomfortable as a breastfeeding parent. Socializing is better anyway because it builds team relationships that strengthen the workplace.
If you’re unsure which goals to set, reflect on your needs. Even one small daily goal will stabilize your new life with a concrete understanding of whether you’re on the right track.
5. Notice and Celebrate Your Wins
It’s so easy to forget about the small wins. Did your infant get their bath before bed? Did you pump an extra bottle of milk before going to sleep? Did you schedule that postpartum checkup appointment? If you did one single thing today, congratulations — that’s a win.
Celebrating might look different each day. You might watch an extra 10 minutes of TV before bed or add extra cheese to your dinner as you make it. Whatever makes you happy, remember to do it. You’re worth celebrating every day because parenting is a journey, not a race with a finish line.
6. Experiment to Find a Better Balance
Your professional life might need a better balance now that you’re up all night with an infant and readjusting to full-time work. Listen to what your body needs and try new things to accommodate them.
If you have a weekly meeting with your team member and don’t have the energy for it like you used to, ask if every other meeting could be an email or fifteen minutes of IMing. Mentioning it politely could be all you need to get a yes.
Change which types of work you tackle in the morning or how long you spend on each to-do list item. If you need help, your supervisor or manager can help you determine new ways to change your schedule without your productivity or goals falling behind.
7. Create Reflection Reminders
Remember, you won’t have a perfect solution for every problem when returning to work after maternity leave. Create calendar reminders to reflect on any changes you’ve made recently. Ask yourself if they’re working for your needs and if not, why? You’ll make healthy adjustments that support your work life more effectively through honest self-reflection every week or two weeks.
8. Get Comfortable Saying No
You’ll have to prioritize your child over other things most of the time as they grow up. It’s what parents do. You can’t always work that extra hour to make up a team member’s slack or show up early to set up a breakfast party for your co-workers. You might not even have the energetic bandwidth to decorate the office with holiday decor like last year.
Saying no doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you a parent who loves your child. Say yes when you can, but draw a line when necessary. Most people will respect your boundaries — you just have to start setting them first.
Enjoy Returning to Work After Maternity Leave
Getting back into the professional swing of things after maternity leave isn’t impossible. Set reasonable and achievable expectations with these tips. Remember, your manager, partner, friends and family members are here to help. You’re not alone in this transitionary period. Ask for help if you need it to become an equally great parent and professional team member.
