Is 21 months in between babies acceptable to be back at work?

[salharg]

Do not want to look as if I am not serious about my job but my body clock is ticking and I will have been back at work 21 months in between pregnancies.
Am I panicking for nothing?

I don’t see anything wrong with that - surely even shorter gaps are common if people take a year off and have 2-3 years between babies?

I was back 18 months between my mat leaves and no one batted an eyelid.

Absolutely fine, pretty normal I'd say. Some people come back from maternity leave already pregnant, you have to do what is right for your family.

Given that some people return to work already pregnant with their next one, I'd say 21 months is plenty! But anyway, your work doesn't get to dictate the age gap between your children, nor how many you choose to have.

There are less than 21 months between my children, so I was certainly back at work a lot less time!

I'll have been back less than a year! I have a feeling my manager's actually quite pleased about that as he'd rather have the disruption of me going off on mat leaves closer together. What he doesn't know is that I want three children - I do actually feel a bit guilty about that bit.

I was back at work for 6 months between my Maternity leaves. DC are 19 months apart.

Tbh, from an employer’s POV, if they’ve had good maternity cover arrangements, sometimes it helps them to have you back only a short while as they can keep their civet arrangements in place. Many people come back part-time after 2 DC, if not after DC1, so often there’s opportunities to retain staff with some juggling.