To think I could study on maternity leave?

[SunflowerOwl]

Not sure if this is a crazy plan or not, but there is qualification I've been wanting to do for ages and I'm wondering I'm my upcoming maternity leave would be a good time.

The course takes approx 10 weeks to complete but there are online providers that let you do it over a year before booking onto the exam.

I'm due at the end of August but have a big chunk of holiday (around 6 weeks) that I was planning on taking before, and then I'm going to take 10 months leave when the baby is here.

Is it completely mad to think this is possible? It's all stuff I know bits about from my job so it would just be getting the formal training.

I was working 2 weeks after my first was born, i had no choice I ran a business and my husband was made redundant so it's 100% doable, if you want to feel frazzled.

I'm way past that stage now but wish with all my heart that I'd take actually time off, not trying to juggle a baby with business, at the time I was proud of what I achieved it's only with hindsight I feel resentment about the whole situation.

So I'd say you have a long life to achieve your goals save them for when baby is older

I was working 2 weeks after my first was born, i had no choice I ran a business and my husband was made redundant so it's 100% doable, if you want to feel frazzled

Hmm I suspect your redundant DH potentially picked up a fair bit of the domestic/childcare stuff for this to have worked. Apologies if not but since you didn’t clarify I would assume so. The OP may not have this support.

OP I’d say it’s doable if you have a pretty average baby who settles into a somewhat decent sleep routine by 6 months.

In my personal opinion you have two options.

• smash it out in the 6 weeks pre baby
• do it in the 6-10 month stage if you think it’s manageable.

DO NOT sign yourself up to be doing it in the first
3 months post baby. I appreciate some women have no choice but to work/do things but you do and honestly there are so many variables about giving birth.
I had a ‘straight forward’ birth but took 3 weeks to be able to walk normally (epidural/nerve issue) and at least 6 weeks to stop feeling like my cervix would fall out if I sneezed (I was a fit and healthy mid 20’s woman). Add to that raging boobs, a CMPA constantly screaming baby and a nasty bout of mastitis. No I would not have been capable of doing much of anything over that first 8-12 weeks.

As others have said, it completely depends on so many factors over which you have no control and couldn't possibly predict.

I lost my mind to severe PND and could barely function let alone undertake academic study. Even without being mentally ill, it would have been impossible with my unsettled velcro baby because I literally couldn't put her down for the first 2 months (or even sit down - she had to be held up high in constant motion to stop her screaming).

Good luck if you decide to give it a try.

id do 40 hours study over the month just encase baby makes an early appearance

I think it’s unlikely to work out and I wouldn’t attempt it with a new baby. Wait until mat leave is over and you have childcare again.

I wouldn’t want to tbh. Maternity leave is hard work but it can also be a really lovely time and I wouldn’t want to be interrupted by anything work-related.

I’m sure it’s possible but I don’t think it would be very enjoyable

A 40 hour course. Yes I'd think that was doable provided that the course was flexible across the year. Even if you didn't get anything done in the 6 weeks leave then it averages less that 1 hour a week over the following year.

The reason I say flexible course is that I could have done it with both of mine but at very different times.

Dd- big problems initially then bottle fed regular pattern, good sleeper I set up a business when she was about 4 months and worked whilst she slept in the day. By the time she got to 9/10months however she became very demanding and ended up in nursery so i could work.

Ds breast fed, fed alot, did alot of reading etc during his early months, 4 month sleep regression about killed me he was tough going then till he got to about 8/9months when he settled alot.

Really depends on your baby and how you are (I'm not sure there's a reliable way of predicting!)

In my experience, I could have with my new born but by the time he was say 3 or 4 months and sleeping less in the day, utterly impossible because he won't be alone! Other friends had babies that were less demanding at that age.

I started night classes for an acsess course when my DD was 3 weeks old, who was ebf and had a complicated section delivery.

It was absolutely the most draining thing I've ever done in the early days but by the time she was 6 months or so it was a breeze.

If you can do it online or there is flexibility I think it would be perfectly doable

It's definitely doable, I started my distance learning degree when my baby was 3 days old!

A lot of people who have never tried it will tell you it’s not possible. I studied for an OU qualification which required 10-12 hours study a week on maternity leave and beyond and did very well. It took organisation and a supportive partner who pulled his weight but it’s completely doable.

Doesn’t mean that there may not be challenges depending on your baby, recovery from labour etc but I wouldn’t pay those who say a blanket “It can’t be done” much mind

What is the actual time commitment? Could be totally doable if you get a decent napper and are disciplined about it. With DC1 I would easily have been able to do 1.5hrs over nap time in the day and then a few hours in the evening once bedtime moved to 7pm. Not study as such, but I spent a few hours a day for quite a few weeks preparing for a big interview (I had to do quite a lot of research and prepare a big presentation).

I would have found it much more difficult with DC2 (even without DC1 to look after!) because they didn’t nap very consistently but could still have used evening time from about 4 months.

As others have said, it completely depends on so many factors over which you have no control and couldn't possibly predict.

This.

I worked up to due date and also finished an OU course - coursework and content - and sat an exam 6 weeks after brith of pfb - though OU let me sit it at home. It was hard but Okay - DH wasn't working very far away and birth had been fairly straightforward.

With second we had to move house days afterward to entriely new area and that nearly killed me - I do wonder if DH and family all thought I'd be fine as I'd managed tso well after pfb. I was worried how I'd cope but our situation wasn't changing but everyone was taken back how ill I was -repeated mastitis and exhaustion and how snappy and emotional I got.

A friend wrote up her PhD - but she ended up with pnd and she though the added pressue she put on herself contibuted to it.

Id say you can swing it. I found the weeks at home before my baby arrived to be so tedious! Do what you can in that time then claim some time at the weekends or whenever your partner is off to do the rest when the baby comes. It would be good to get the brain fired up too before back to work too. I'm currently doing a FT MSc a near 2 year old and with PT childcare. Lol don't really advocate for doing that its bloody haaaard!

I did a professional skills qualification via remote learning and changed career. HOWEVER I had a very easy baby, my housekeeping standards are practically non-existent so I wasn’t doing much in the way of cleaning, and I didn’t really suffer with sleep deprivation, so I worked during nap times and in the evening once DH was back from work. Plus it was entirely self-paced so if I had a bad few weeks there was no penalty for not meeting deadlines.

I completely and utterly understand that my experience would not be everyone’s experience. I was very, very lucky that it worked out as well as it did.

I started my teaching degree when ds was 6 weeks old

I would have been able to. But that was having a baby during lockdown who was a great sleeper... so more time on my hands!

Definitely not in the early months though, so if you can do a lot in those 6 weeks then pick it up after another few months then go for it!

I am finishing a Master’s degree whilst on ML this year and in all honesty I really wish I had suspended my studies for the year instead. I’ve personally found it very difficult to manage having a baby and putting effort into my course.

I am just so tired all the time that I can’t think clearly, and as soon as I get absorbed in some work she wakes up and cries! Then it’s hard to get back into it again.

I definitely didn’t think it would be as hard as it is. It’s also now stressing me out and time I should be spending bonding with my baby is spent worrying about my dissertation!

Can you use AL / mat leave to finish work sooner and then do your course before baby arrives?

I finished a uni module when my Dd was newly born. Then took two modules off and started up again. In hindsight it would have been fine to keep going with my modules while she was tiny and sleeping most of the day.

I was doing a degree whilst on maternity leave and it didn't impact it.

It hugely depends on your baby. Mine didn't sleep more than 1h at a time till 19m (although in hindsight I'd have sleep trained earlier if I'd known how much better it would be afterwards!).

It’s a great goal but don’t beat yourself up if you don’t manage it
I didn’t know if I was coming or going for the first few months
But if the birth is easy and baby is a sleeper you have support and not breastfeeding

Go for it

You need to find 40 hours in 12 months?! YANBU, this is more than achievable...10 weeks full time is very different. This is essentially one week full time...

I wish I’d started my Masters during my maternity leave, I easily could have done it.

Instead I did it with a 1 year old at home, working nights and no childcare thanks to covid.

My mum did a B.Ed. with a newborn, 1 year old and 5 year old at home.