Positive stories of working quite soon post partum

[pisces5891]

Hello!
Id really love to hear womens positive stories of returning to work very soon after birth. I've read so many posts advising against it and for balance i would love to hear the positive side. So those only please! I'm planning a gentle, staggered return at 6 weeks..i can bring my baby to work with me, and my husband will be on paternity leave and my mother in law will be there too. So I'm really supported. Id love to know what really helped with that transition. I want it to be a positive experience. My work is really flexible, so for example i could do 3 hours per day or 2 full days a week. But i can't work from home. Thanks soo much!

I should also add, I'm really hoping to breastfeed!

Hiya,
I don't have any advice but my experience this time round is that I am able to take my little one to work with me and I went back to work 9 months post partum. Now my little one is 15 months I often find myself thinking how much easier it would be if they were 6 weeks old and I could put them in the carrier/cot while they slept instead of running around causing mischief!! So I say enjoy it, sounds like you are supported and can bring your baby to work so invest in a good carrier and make sure they are used to it and crack on! Hope all goes well.

When I had my first baby I owned my own business and had to go back to work at 6 weeks post partum. He was an easy baby, and it was actually quite a lovely experience for me. Stressful in the morning, getting there on time (an hour on the bus with him!), but my work was pretty chilled, and we just hung out together all day.

These are wonderful, thank you! Nice thought about getting them used to a particular carrier for when they're at work with me... food for thought! Finding things that are familiar and comforting for baby while I'm on the job. The job is 3 months long, so ill be off again by the time baby is a little more active, which i think is going to be useful!

Flexibility plus the fact you are talking about taking a baby to work for just three months makes it all sound doable with an easy babe in arms. Hopefully you can wear them most of the time. Good luck!

This is a long time ago but I went back to two jobs, working a total 50 hours a week with a 4 week old. I’d had a c section and complications but I managed it. Can’t say it was a great experience at the time needs must. Maternity pay and leave was much shorter then and I’d been forced into starting maternity leave much earlier than I would have liked due to my fixed term contract coming to an end when I was 34 weeks pregnant. I’d had to claim maternity allowance which was peanuts. Then DS arrived almost 2 weeks late forcing a return when he was just 4ish weeks old when work offered me another fixed term contract. I took annual leave for post partum check up and DS’s vaccinations / health visitor.

if you can take baby with you and it’s a short term role I think it’s doable.

I'm self employed, my husband took off 6 months. I went back about a day a week (but because self-employed I choose my own hours and it was totally flexible) from 3 weeks with my second (a bit longer with my first). That was technically using kit type days, for the few weeks, but the works the same. I then increased the hours slowly. I had c sections (my choice) but I recovered from them within about a week thankfully.

Because my husband was on paternity leave, it was absolutely fine. Tbh, it was a lot easier to work with a newborn than when they got older. Breastfeeding went fine, though it massively restricted what my husband could do with her in the day. Unless you've got a baby who refuses bottles from birth, like mine, I wouldn't personally recommend breastfeeding, certainly not exclusively, if you're juggling work in the early days. It meant he couldn't take her to baby groups or swimming, or meet up with other parents. He did baby massage, but only because I stayed in the car outside with my laptop!

Working whilst knackered sucks, but I was now knackered at the end of pregnancy than with my babies (terrible SPD causing insomnia), and my babies slept better as newborns than as older babies, so it was fine. From about 9m, when they were mobile, plus working more, plus my husband working again and sleep being worse, were far harder.

It depends on the baby and birth but could be totally fine. Can you make a decision once you know what you've got?

I went back to work full time when DD was 6 weeks old. I couldn't take her with me (she had a childminder), and I wasn't breastfeeding, so somewhat different circs. It wasn't ideal, but I managed it. I was unprepared for the scramble of my post partum brain, though, so that was harder than any physical changes. It sounds like you can work short hors and have loads of support, so I would say go for it. There are so many posts on Mumsnet from mothers who are stuck at home with a new born, and they are lonely and lost and have no support - you won't be on of them, at least!

I went back when my daughter was 2 weeks old. I had tried breast feeding but had stopped by 2 weeks. It would have been impossible to breastfeed and work, but we had a bad breastfeeding journey. I actually feel more myself working

A lot of the plan will depend on how breastfeeding will go.

If you think it will be a matter of picking up the baby every two hours, feeding for ten minutes, burping, changing nappy, and setting back down to sleep, I think you'll quickly realise that's not how breastfeeding works.

You might be better advised to pump at work, leaving the baby with your husband and MIL, and teaching them how to handle breastmilk.

Most of the young women I know who are doctors (in the US) went back between three weeks and six weeks, at the latest. They pumped at work and had nannies who handled and fed the pumped milk at home.