Returning to Work After a Baby: What You Need to Know?

Transitioning back to professional life after a parental or maternity leave is not as easy as it may seem. You have been out of the office for weeks or months, and now you are returning to your job role as a different person with unique responsibilities.

This feeling can be emotional, overwhelming, or, quite frankly, just too much to process. Most importantly, it is about finding a complicated or rather challenging balance between looking forward to work and not being ready to leave the newborn just yet.

Sometimes, this can feel like a stage in life with conflicting priorities that one is not sure how to tackle, especially when connected to the feeling of mom guilt.

The good news is that almost all new mothers who are resuming their professional journey tend to battle these feelings and thoughts. All you need is the right guidance and a little bit of homework on your end to make this transition as effortless as possible.

In this article, I will list some simple steps and methods to help you swiftly transition back to professional life as a new mother and maintain a healthy balance between work and motherhood.

Be Gentle With Yourself

First things first, be gentle with yourself, thoughts, and feelings. As a working mother, it is very important not to take any emotional temperature when in the first two to three weeks after resuming your job. Understand that your life has indeed changed drastically, so feeling tired, confused, or just not knowing where it is going is normal.

In the long run, some mothers may also develop feelings of self-doubt and have conflicting thoughts about whether they want to continue their professional lives. Remember that just because your life as a new mom feels busy doesn't mean it will remain that way forever.

Embrace the fact that it is an emotional stage in your life and that it is too early to draw conclusions based on just a few weeks. Validating your feelings by listening to them should also go hand in hand with this. Remind yourself that, as with any other age and stage of your newborn baby, this too shall pass.

Take this transition as gently as possible, giving yourself enough time for trial and error until you figure out which works best for you and your baby.

Consider Your Schedule

While making the shift from motherhood to work is never easy, there are many aspects that you can plan and schedule ahead to make things simple and more manageable. One best example is to make this transition in different phases rather than all at once, that is, of course, if your workplace allows such flexibility with a hybrid setting.

Try working a couple of days at home and a few at the office. Or, if you have the option, consider switching to part-time and then gradually stepping into full-time when you are confident you have mastered the art of work-life balance.

If you have the choice to work part-time first, it allows you to take more time to understand how you can do the job you did differently. As a working mother, it removes some pressure of juggling or balancing your new responsibilities and gives you enough time to focus on your work.

However, it is also important to emphasise that while working part-time, you will have to be selective about the tasks at hand and how you do them in a limited timeframe. In the long run, this can sometimes show HR that you have shifted priorities in life that limit your capacity—especially if you were an efficient professional who used to work at your potential before maternity leave.

On the other hand, going straight to full-time after maternity helps you set your work schedule differently at the outset. It allows you to quickly bounce back to your professional life and sets the tone for how your routine should look in order to balance between work and motherhood. It helps you be punctual and create healthy boundaries at work.

Be Up Front With Your Boss

This doesn’t have to be on the first day back to work after maternity leave, but at some point, you need to be clear-cut about your role at the workplace. This is a step that should not be overlooked if you are one of those employees that the company relies on for urgent tasks or to do overtime.

Have a calm and clear conversation with your boss or the line manager about the new realities of your life and how they relate to your job. Acknowledge that the next few weeks may be bumpy as you deal with an emotional transition to a new working mother. Give them the assurance that you will be committed to your job role and its output to the team.

Be open about your thoughts on having to travel for work and whether you need some time to resume these tasks or any other overseas projects the company is considering you for.

The more proactive you are about your capacity in the workplace, the easier it is for your manager to create tasks around it. This goes a long way in avoiding surprises or challenges that can throw you off balance at work as a new working mother.

Set Expectations With Colleagues

Be extra mindful of how you set boundaries to manage relationships with colleagues as you settle into your new life. Many new working mothers return to work with the mindset that they will figure it out or adapt with time, but this is risky. If you don’t have a clear idea of how you want your schedule to be with your teams or colleagues, they will come up with assumptions and make a timeframe for you, which can mess with your well-planned schedule.

Communication is critical here. Just like how you set expectations clearly with your boss, be open with your colleagues or teammates.

Make the time you want to clock in and clock out clear. This allows them to know when to talk to you at work and have any discussions if needed. With time, this can change, but setting this boundary is very important to make a healthy transition to your work life.

Get Support When Needed

Resuming your professional life as a first-time working mom is a process that requires a lot of trial and error. Getting insights from people who have mastered the art of work and motherhood is another great option to try. Join mom networks where people can share similar experiences about their professional journey after maternity leave and juggling motherhood in general.

Try to build connections with people who have children in your neighbourhood. This network gives you a support system where you can share similar problems or challenges and get first-hand knowledge.

If you feel it is hard to get all this sorted out by yourself as a new working mother, regardless of your effort, get professional help from a life coach. Through this, you will benefit from personalised support alongside effective techniques, methods, and approaches that can make this transition a lot easier.