Tier 2 and maternity leave

[Ami100]

Hello all,

So London is in tier 2 now. I'm on maternity leave my son will be 8 months old next week.

My husband works long hours and is out for 12 hours a day. Without being able to visit my parents or have play dates with other mums and babies I'm really going to struggle. I do a baby music class with my son once a week but there's not much else going on with covid etc. What a year to have a baby!

Anyone else feeling isolated whilst on maternity leave ??

Yep my baby was born on 7th April. Apart from those few weeks in August there’s been some sort of restrictions all his life.

At least when your baby was born you (hopefully) didn’t have to labour along for part of your labour. Or partner quickly sent away. Or be banned from anyone holding your newborn. It’s been a minefield.

However. My baby is awesome. (Even if he has had me up since 1am!) and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

But yes maternity leave has not been what I thought.

I’m with you- incredibly isolated. DS born two days into lockdown. No one met him For around 3 months if not slightly longer.. it’s been mentally challenging.

DS is still the best thing ever though and is our shining light in this dark doom of a year.

Others are definitely feeling the same OP! Hope you are okay. There is a couple Facebook groups that do virtual classes, might be worth looking into them. I’ve done a couple and have been fun/something to do. Xx

Hi. My baby was born on 25 March, and I can honestly say this has been my worst year ever.

Snap, baby born in May and its so lonely. We’re in tier 3 so i really am limited with what I can do.

I had my son back in November last year. Had a v difficult delivery and recovery took ages. Managed about a month of starting to be able to go out and enjoy classes etc and then lockdown happened. I found it really, really hard- my mental health was impacted hugely. My mat leave with DS has now ended and I'm back at work, but am now pregnant with DC2 and due to finish work after Christmas. Kind of dreading a second mat leave in lockdown!

It's great that one of your classes is still running. Are any others? Around here baby sensory, hartbeeps, baby sign classes etc are all up and running and it's saving my sanity on my days off work to be honest.

I'm with you OP. DS is 8 months in ten days. We have been under restrictions for all but four weeks since he was born (NW). My mum and dad have met him once. We are now awaiting diagnosis for him of a medical condition which will mean we have to battle through NHS waiting lists during a pandemic. This year has been shit.

Me! DS is 6 weeks old and we're in tier two as well.

T2 is a slight improvement on the 'local lockdown' we were in when he was born though as we are now allowed to meet people outside. I met a friend for coffee yesterday; my local coffee shop has managed to squeeze some tables outside, it felt like a huge treat.

No one has held / cuddled DS though and I know the grandparents have found that very hard. I think it's going to be a very strange maternity leave.

Same here OP, my baby is 8 months old now and we're Tier 2. I do feel like we've been robbed of the maternity leave I'd imagined and planned. However, as long as we don't go back into full lockdown, like when they were first born, I can cope with this now. Baby groups are still running, so make sure you go to at least one per week. If weather is OK try a local new mums park meet up for a walk and chat. If it's raining a bit I still go but just wear big coat with hood and put rain cover over buggy. I've found doing things like taking my baby swimming once a week also helps. Gets us both out the house, bit of physical exercise for them (plus sensory experience) and other swimmers tend to say hello and have a sd chat, which is nice. It's just nice to have a bit of interaction with other ppl, even if it is sd. Same for if you go out for lunch, sit in cafe. Ppl on other tables will have a chat which is nice for me and also baby, gives them a bit of interaction with others.