Going back to work after birth

amother

Pink

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 3:49 pm

If you live in a state that does not pay for you maternity leave, how soon after birth did you go back to work? Especially if your job is with kids (teacher, day care, etc.)? If you are living paycheck to paycheck?

amother

Blue

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 9:24 pm

I actually did four weeks. We had no choice. My baby is fine, and is actually better than fine! So cute, k"h, and so smart, and so loving.

As long as you're comfortable with the caretaker, and really get a good one, you can do it.

amother

Cerulean

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 11:19 pm

I am a teacher.

my current school pays for 3 weeks of maternity leave.

with my last I went back at 4 weeks. I did that because.....
It was 12 days of work over 5 calendar weeks (got paid for 1/2 of may and all of june)
I had a family friend watching the baby.
I was bottle feeding not nursing (I dont know if I would have gone back so fast if I was nursing)
I knew I had summer break coming up after the 12 days.

OneSource

Wed, Mar 25 2015, 10:33 am

With my last child, my job doesn't offer paid maternity leave so after six weeks of unpaid time, I went back to work full-time (pumping at work.) Now, I'm due to have my next child any day and I just recently bought a house and renovated (using every penny we had...) so I need to keep working to cover the bills (including summer camp for my older daughter, mortgage, etc.). My game plan is to take all of my paid vacation days (1 week) off and then 1 week (unpaid.) At 2 weeks, post-postpartum, I am going to be working from home full or part time, depending on how it goes. My job is really working with me to ensure that I can work steadily and consistently. Fortunately, I have full-time child care in my house for my 1 year old already so that will just continue once I have the newbie and I'll have a pair of hands to enable me to work remotely.

Overall, it really depends on your work schedule, whether you can work from home or need to commute asap etc. If your job can accommodate you and work with your physical needs, going back sooner than six weeks is feasible.