When did you go on maternity leave? (am self employed - looking to see what other MTBs to)

[CareerGirl01]

I went on mat leave at 38 weeks with DD1 because it timed with Christmas holidays. Am self employed (was then as well but have since worked as staff and been made redundant).
My blood pressure went up at 37 weeks - had benn 70/100 most of DD1 pregnancy.
Now I'm 29 weeks and wondering what to do about work. I'm still needing to re-establish my freelance career and in need of new clients - can't rely on old and existing ones just in case. What have other SE mums done?

I'm also self-employed and I worked until 38 weeks with DC1. I did reduce the number of days I worked as the pregnancy progressed though, and from about 30 weeks I think I only did about three days a week.

I know what you mean about client base, but (not knowing what kind of work you do) if you are going to go on maternity leave in the next couple of months, any new client relationships you make now you'll still have to re-establish when you return, assuming you're going to take off nine months or so. In a way it might be better to really focus on the clients you have now so they keep you in mind while you're off, and then court new clients when you know you're going to be around to work with them over a decent period. That's what I did. I took a full year off and I'm finding my old clients are keen to have me and I have the energy and enthusiasm for business development that I definitely didn't have when I was 30 weeks pg!

Congrats on the pregnancy.

Am 24 wks, SE now was employed with DS. Plan to stop at 38 weeks. Have the baby booked in at the nursery from March 2014.

My plan is to survive on stat mat pay and the 10 KIT days for any work that comes along. However, I can imagine it is very hard to turn work down if it comes knocking...

I plan to keep up things like my e-news, Twitter and going to most relevant networking events to try to keep my profile vaguely afloat. With some business development in Jan/Feb to pipeline stuff.

I HATE the feeling of being less relevant on the approach to mat leave. Hated it last time, feels worse this time as I am my business. :(

Appreciate you were looking for experiences of what worked rather than what I hope will work!

There was a thread on the Freelance board a while back (did try to search but on phone so isn't easy) about this. A lot of posters seemed to work after a few month break.

Hopefully some mord experienced ppl will be along.

Good luck with the planning.

I run my own business with my husband and we work from home. I never officially went on maternity leave but did reduce my hours (mainly in the form of a lie-in in the mornings!). Afterwards I took about 3 days and then just worked around the baby's needs (he'd sleep in his carrycot in the office - the more noise the better he slept ), probably adding up to about 15-20 hrs a week.

I regret not having been able to take time off beforehand to have some time to myself, but I think that was a bit of a 'would like to have had'. I definitely think it was too much going back to work 3 days after the birth, but it wasn't really possible for me to be completely away from work for several weeks. Currently PG with DS2 and definitely going to try and take at least a week off after the birth. Two weeks ideally but it most likely won't be possible as he's due in June which is our busy time of year.

I think it depends on your job, I'm 38 weeks and finished at 36, my job is physical though (dog groomer) and it was getting difficult with being on my feet all day plus the bending, lifting, controlling wriggly dogs and my bump was in the way of the work bench.

I'd have worked longer if I had an office based job or similar as I'd rather have the time with her once she's here, worst case scenario is I go to 42 weeks which will have used up 6 weeks of my 39 week maternity allowance.

Oddly enough my bp has gone up since I finished.

I'm a self employed contractor. My contract finishes at 30 weeks and I will be stopping then. Probably a slightly different sort of self employed than you so may not be relevant, as its contract based and they are usually 3 or 6 month contracts.
Its a tough one to balance - I am very aware that I need to earn as much as possible now to tide me over till I go back to work again, but need to balance it against having some time to prepare (1st pg and no chance of sorting anything out at home while I'm working because I'm actually away from home most of the time)
I've got some good relationships in my business network for a return to work, but so many things are hard to predict at this point. At what point will I want feel able to go back - 4 months, 6 months, 1 year as it will hugely depend on baby, feeding, sanity, family life! We have budgeted for at least 1 year by being frugal but I feel unable to predict how life with a baby will be. So am trying not to make too many concrete plans because I just don't have the info to make plans. This feels so strange to a control freak like me!

Hi all thanks! I'm going to try and work till 38 weeks - I'm a writer and work from home. I need to keep something going. If bp goes up ill stop.
Is a tough call...