Preparing for Maternity Leave
“Dearest mothers, thank you, thank you for what you are in your family and for what you give to the Church and the world.” (Pope Francis).
Discovering that you’re expecting, by birth or adoption, can bring a whole range of emotions: excitement, fear, wonder, joy, stress. If you’re a working soon-to-be mom, you’ll have the added challenge of navigating time away from work while caring for your new child.
Early First Steps
Your first step when considering your professional life should be determining when and with whom you want to share your news. If you yourself are pregnant, you may want to wait until a certain amount of time has passed before you feel comfortable, or you may want to restrict the news to a small group (your manager and Human Resources, for example). Be clear that you’d like the information to stay private, and you’ll notify them when and if that changes. If you are pursuing adoption, you may choose to share when you enter into the adoption process and provide updates along the way. Other early first steps to consider include :
Clarifying the process for taking time off for necessary medical appointments or support groups such as Centering Pregnancy.
Any options for short-term disability if needed for health reasons related to your pregnancy.
What language to use (to other coworkers) if you need leave or time away, if you prefer them not to know about your pregnancy or upcoming adoption.
What parental leave is offered for biological and adoptive parents.
Determine what you’ll need to do to access this leave, including any forms, and when you should begin this process.
If you need short-term disability, start the process early. Often forms need to be completed in collaboration with your medical provider and your employer and can take time. Asking for a dedicated support number and/or person with the company managing your short-term disability can be helpful.
When the News is Public
At some point, the news that you’re expecting or adopting will likely become public. A key consideration at that point will be: What are you comfortable with, and what boundaries do you have?
Consider things like:
Physical touch
Workplace baby showers
Gifts
Meal trains
Requests for photos
You may welcome any and all questions or support, or deeply prefer to keep work and personal life separate. It’s important to have your boundaries clearly thought through and be ready to kindly communicate them with colleagues, clients, or customers.
Making a Plan
Sooner than you may anticipate, you’ll need to make an actual plan for your time away from work, however long that might be. You may have an expected timeline if you yourself are giving birth, but regardless of biological birth or adoption, a necessary leave can happen quickly with little or no notice. Here are some tips:
Start by documenting your work responsibilities by month or quarter.
What are your primary tasks? What colleagues, if any, support them? Who else knows how to do this work? (It’s also very important to note if no one else does.)
Work with your manager or HR contact to develop a coverage plan and timeline.
Who will cover which responsibilities? Is temporary maternity leave coverage necessary? Who will you need to train and in what? Consider making videos using tools like Loom to document your tasks in case your leave approaches suddenly
Consider asking for adjustments to your leave policy
For example, if you feel you will need more time off, can you take unpaid leave? Can you come back sooner, but part time for a while? Can you work remotely for a period before and/or after your child arrives?
When D-Day Arrives
(That’s “delivery day,” the term I ended up using for all my leave planning!). Prior to going into labor or receiving notice that your adoption is moving forward, you should put a few things in place like:
Knowing who to contact at your organization to put your plan into action.
Knowing who will need access to any work-related tools they may need to cover your work (email, logins, keys, etc.) and ensuring they have that access.
An out-of-office message, social media post, or other way to communicate with your colleagues, customers or clients that you are firmly away from work, for how long, and who they can contact during that time.
A plan for your gentle return to work.
On my return to work, I had nearly 2,000 emails to weed through, a new tech system to learn, and a lot to catch up on—plus I had a colicky newborn and hadn’t slept in days. Consider an “offline” first week (or weeks!), with no meetings, no new tasks, and no metrics-based responsibilities. Plan an early check-in with your supervisor, if you have one, and the person who has been covering the majority of your responsibilities to get a high-level overview of what’s happened while you’ve been out.
If You Work for Yourself
If you work for yourself, you likely don’t have a manager, HR director, or even a short-term disability policy. However, you still deserve to take time away to heal physically if you gave birth, and bond with your new child.
Consider:
Planning out how long you can fully be away, with potentially no income.
Consider hiring temporary support or subcontractors to cover existing work.
Sharing with customers or clients that you will be away and for how long.
Pre-scheduling social media or sales-related posts.
Spacing out any meetings or client-facing contact to allow time to rest, feed and care for your baby, and catch up.
Above all, recognize that regardless of whether you’re giving birth or adopting, work will be different now, especially in the short term. Give yourself the grace to take things slowly, one day at a time.
Sarah Battersby has a Bachelor's in English and a Master's in Social Work and has spent most of her career working with students and student-serving organizations. She currently works for the small consulting firm she co-owns. She loves reading, baking and discovering new things with her daughter. She lives in North Carolina with her family.