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.

Back at work within a couple of weeks with both mine (did an hour or two a day from day 5 with my first)

Self employed so no real choice as maternity allowance wouldn't cover the bills and I wouldn't have had any clients to go back to anyway if I took too long off.

Probably depends what you're doing but i fed in a carrier as much as possible whilst working in the morning and then my partner would take the baby for 2 hours in the afternoon and usually take them for a buggy walk & ideally theyd nap until I got back. Neither of mine would really take a bottle but seemed to understand that he couldn't feed them and would cope for a couple of hours. Albeit feeding as much as possible before, after, and during the night 🤣 up until 4 or 5 months I left expressed milk just incase so they could at least try a bottle if desperate enough but they never took to it.

I went back to work when mine were 12 weeks. I WFH but they went to nursery.

That brings back memories of typing with one hand, whilst bouncing on a yoga ball and breastfeeding simultaneously 😂. The things we learn to do eh!!

My story is returning at 3 months, so if that's too long for stories you wanted, no worries, please ignore. I didn't have flexibility/wfh and nor did husband-did have some family help, so I was happy enough-I wouldn't personally have wanted to leave a young child in nursery/CM. Not judging anyone, but I personally would have taken longer off if family hadn't helped.
I felt it was great, because it's good for a child to be used to go to grandparents/bonding and helps the family all be close. You can all meet and go out together at the weekend, thanking them for helping, and giving you all a chance to chat.
I would have liked the flexibility you say you have, because it's good to do the baby groups sometimes, and get the best of both worlds. Being out of work totally for a year, then straight back in, would probably be much harder for mum and baby.

I'm 5 months pp. I haven't gone back to my full-time position but I run a pet shop with a family member. I went back to that at around 10 weeks. Just a few hours at first. Now I do at least 2 days a week and baby comes with me in her pram or carrier. Also started putting her in a high chair in the shop this week.

I will say, if you have a c-section you might have to take longer and you may need longer to establish breastfeeding.

Overall I would say it's possible but I do have mum guilt that we could spend that time doing other things.

Are you able to wait and decide once your baby arrives? As honestly you have absolutely no idea what it'll be like, no-one does!

Have some backup plans!
Babies are definitely hard to predict. Mine was mostly asleep for the first 3 months and really easy but didn't like being in a sling at all. Cried loads. Not very portable.

3 hours a day is definitely manageable if you can take baby with you! When so tiny they sleep so much and if breastfeeding you just put them in a sling and they latch for a feed as needed. Not possible if doing full days but 3 hours definitely doable.

I went back when baby was 8 weeks. I was self employed so had no choice financially. Baby came with me as I was nannying and babysitting. It was difficult because i basically went back more than full time as I worked more hours than full time pre baby. I took a hit financially as people don’t pay as much if you have your own child along with you.

the thing that made is really difficult was the layabout arsehole ex at home who did less hours than me but wouldn’t do any housework or cooking and refused to care for baby when he was home. If your partner is going to be doing half the cooking and cleaning etc then you will be fine.

it’s when baby gets a bit older and is awake longer and won’t be happy in a sling for the 3 hours. And that will happen quite fast. So have childcare lined up to take baby to a group or something so you can get work done and then time your work for nap time immediately after baby returns to you. Or a that point do two long days with childcare/leave with husband.

you will probably qualify for the funding for working parents the term after baby turns 9 months? For just two days that will likely cover most of it partially if you use a childminder and if recommend that with such a young child. What I will say is start them just a bit with the childcare before you need the 2 days because settling a baby at 9 months old just attending 2 days a week is often brutal

Thank you so much for all these responses, very useful and encouraging!

depending on the baby you might be able to shedual breastfeeding to meet your work needs. Or you could combi or more or less always breastfeed apart from if u really really need to do something at work. I mean they will eat if they are hungry and breastfed babies can go for a while without feeding. Mine could easily do a three hour stint in a morning say 9-12 then double feed 12.30 and 1.30 and then have a long nap in the afternoon and feed agin between 3 and 4 depending when they wake up. None of them would have waited long after waking up before getting cross if u didn’t feed them so u can’t completely dictate to them but you can deffo nudge. If it goes like me you would need to cluster in the evening to make up for having a chill day if u wanna sleep through the night. So every 1.5-2 hours they are going to wanna feed between 4 and 10 (in my experience and this doesn’t apply to all babies just it could happen) worked for me