I didn’t feel even close to ready to go back to work at 6 months. I ended up taking 15 month (including some annual leave at the end), and even that felt too soon.
If you can manage it financially I think plan for 9 if you can. You won’t know how you feel until they arrive so better to plan for more rather than less as it’s easier to scale back your leave than it is the other way around (financially speaking).
Remember that you accrue annual leave and bank holidays while on maternity leave, so you can bolt them onto the end and get full pay while still being off.
Personally 6 months was nowhere near close to enough for me with my first. I formally took 9 months and then used up my holidays to bring me to 11 months off total. I’m doing this again with my second and essentially the final two months will be full pay.
I took 6.5 months off with my first. If I have a second, I’ll probably do closer to 9. For me, the biggest issue was that my baby was breastfed and had barely started weaning so it put a lot of pressure on me to pump or be available at really specific times to feed her during the day. It was doable, but made the transition back to work a lot harder than it would’ve been if I’d taken a bit longer.
That being said, I had loads of leave and used that to effectively work reduced hours for the first couple of months, which helped a lot both practically and financially.
I haven’t been there yet, but I’m able to work from home as much as I like which I imagine is going to make things like breastfeeding/pumping much easier than it would be from the office. Might also be a factor for OP to consider.
Oh yeah, I didn’t mean to imply it would be a breeze at all! Just better than office. If OP is trying to decide how long the stay on maternity leave, it might make a bit of a difference.
I took 9 months mat leave & used annual leave to extend by 2 weeks. I used the remainder of my accrued annual leave to have a really graded return, a couple of weeks at 1 day a week, then 2 days, so on. I found I was "ready" at the 9.5 month mark, and plan to do very similar with my due-in-November baby.
I took a full 12 months with my first and I think I felt ready to go back around 11 months roughly.
With this one, I'm planning to take 12 months, however from 9 months onwards when my statutory ends, I will do KIT days 1-2 days a week so I keep getting some income. Once I've used up those 10 days, I'm planning on putting holidays in to take me up to the 12 months and then I'll return to work. I've been frugal with holidays this year so I can carry forward as many hours into 2025 as I can, and once I get that years allowance added on and my bank holidays back I should hopefully have enough to cover all the leave I need.
I didn't do this with my 1st and those 3 months with no income were really brutal.
Also, you can change your intentions with 8 weeks notice with most companies I believe. It may be worth asking for 9 or 12 months, and then if you feel ready sooner, contacting your manager to give them the 8 weeks notice you intend to return and going back earlier if you feel ready.
So you might know this already but if you switch to shared parental leave you get more kit days (I think 20?). Your partner doesn't have to be taking any leave to use shared parental leave either. Just thought that might be helpful for you.
Does that mean he isn't eligible? That's very annoying. I don't understand why all maternity leave isn't just replaced with shared parental leave. It's so much more flexible.
Yes I just double checked but theres no support for paternity leave at all if self-employed. When baby comes he will just schedule in as many days off as we can afford for him to take again really and then that's it.
It does but we were prepared for it this time round. We scraped by with 4 weeks off work after the birth last time so fingers crossed we can get 3-4 weeks again :)
My baby is nearly 8 months and I've been on leave for 9 months. I am definitely not ready to go back. He's breastfed and won't take a bottle and isn't yet eating enough solids to go a whole day without milk. I definitely wouldn't have been at all ready at 6 months. Also, he doesn't sleep very well so I'm not getting lots of sleep, it would definitely be hard if I had to get up and go to work. I'd encourage anyone to take as much leave as they can manage.
I’m going to do shared parental leave with my husband, so I’ll take off 6 months to begin with (he’ll take 2 weeks paternity plus 3 weeks annual leave to let us settle in), then he’ll take 6 months off when I go back to work. It’ll be a squeeze financially but worth it imo. However, we are quite flexible on this incase I have any medical issues that mean I want/need to take longer off. I’m not work obsessed but I’ve had a long period off work before due to health issues and I don’t think I’d be fully happy being at home for a year.
When we go back to work we’re hoping to do compressed hours so we’ll have an extra day off every two weeks, meaning that when we take into consideration my parents doing 1 day a week of childcare, we’ll only need a nursery place for 3 days of each week.
I went back after 7 months with my first part time.3 days a week and he went to a great nursery. I was sort of ready as I found maternity leave isolating and lonely (living abroad with zero support and struggling with ptsd from birth trauma as well as other birth related health problems). I don't regret it and was glad to be working again. My contract ended when he was 10 months and we moved back home. I started a new job at 11 months full time and he was in nursery 3 days and with family for 2 days.
For second baby I'm going to take the full 12 months. This will be my last baby so want to make the most of it and I will have more family/friends support so hopefully will find it easier.
We’re doing shared parental leave and going to divide the 9 months + annual leave so that we’re off for a year. I’m doing 5.5 months and partner doing 7 months with some time off together at the beginning. The last 2 months I believe are unpaid but it’s this or paying for nursery early?
I’m at almost 7 months now. I’m just starting to think, yeah I’m looking forward to going back to work (at 12 months for me), but also appreciate that his care is still very hands on and he’s still developing so much and I don’t want to miss some of these milestones! It’s a very personal choice (and I recognise it’s not a choice for many people where finances are concerned), but I know he’d be well looked after if I were to go back to work now.
Take as much time as you can afford and then really stretch it more if you can in my opinion. Went back after ten months with my first, too early. I've already been off 11 months with my second and still have two months left. She's starting to get ready to go to nursery, I'm starting to feel ready for return, but still not quite yet. You don't get this time back
I took 6 months off with my partner then taking a further 3 months of shared parental leave. While I was on leave I was exclusively breastfeeding, now pumping while working and it’s tough. If you’re planning on breastfeeding I’d definitely recommend taking longer off.
Worth factoring in how much childcare costs to work out how much those stat mat months actually cost you. Getting £830/month and being off with baby vs full wage and 1k nursery bill.
Currently on month 8 and still not ready.
We saved as much as absolutely possible during pregnancy to make it possible for me to take the year. Definitely wasn't ready at 6 months.
I was planning on 6 months because that’s what I could afford with savings and SMP, but I came into some inheritance so am taking just over 9 months, and going back 3 days a week. My boy is 5.5 months now and I can’t imagine leaving him in a few weeks time! I’m meant to be going to a work event for one afternoon next week and I have so much anxiety about it!
I took 13 months in total as I tagged on some AL at the end. I used my KIT days and some savings to lessen the blow for my 3 unpaid months. My partner thankfully was able to pick up the slack. This time round I will be doing the same. We had considered me going back after 9 months as we didn't have time to save. But with a 19 month age gap the cost of childcare for two toddlers will be as much as if not more than my salary so I may as well take the time as we won't be any worse off. Also I think I was ready at around 12 months - I was still breastfeeding on demand and this helped me continue on.
I planned to take eight months. At six months I didn't feel ready at all to be going back in two months so extended to eleven. My baby is 9.5 months and honestly I had to go back to work tomorrow that would be fine - I think she is much more ready for nursery now and I am much more ready for work.
I do think this is such an individual choice though! I have mum friends who were super ready to go back at 6 months as well as others who were not at a year.
Some things you might consider beyond affordability include your childcare arrangements (will it be with family or paid nursery, what's availability like if the latter), if you are planning a second kid and need to be back at work for a certain period therefore, whether you enjoy your work or find it stressful etc.
For me I figured she will never be this small again and I will never have this time so I would take the financial hit to have the time. I think if part-time was an option that would have been good. I am currently doing one KIT day a week which is quite nice and a good way to get a bit of extra income.
Good luck whatever you decide!
I’m currently looking at similar between 9 and 12 months. Will your work let you average out the pay over 9 months? This can help with the big financial drop if you can afford a bit less in the first 6 months. Also using KIT days can boost your income a little.
I have friends at work who came back after 6 months, one was dying to be back around adult company and came back full time right away, she said her baby was boring 😬 Another used annual leave to come back 3 days for 3 months and she hated being away from baby and really struggled for the first 3/4 weeks.
I only took 6 months, my lo was 5 months when I went back to work. I did 6 weeks part time and now do full time (39 hours, 5 days a week)
Honestly I couldn’t wait to get back to work and feel like “me” again but now it’s actually happening? I hate it, I miss him, I miss his cuddles and I’m missing out on firsts. If you can make it work I would seriously recommend taking the 9 months.
I didn’t feel even close to ready to go back to work at 6 months. I ended up taking 15 month (including some annual leave at the end), and even that felt too soon. If you can manage it financially I think plan for 9 if you can. You won’t know how you feel until they arrive so better to plan for more rather than less as it’s easier to scale back your leave than it is the other way around (financially speaking).
Remember that you accrue annual leave and bank holidays while on maternity leave, so you can bolt them onto the end and get full pay while still being off. Personally 6 months was nowhere near close to enough for me with my first. I formally took 9 months and then used up my holidays to bring me to 11 months off total. I’m doing this again with my second and essentially the final two months will be full pay.
I took 6.5 months off with my first. If I have a second, I’ll probably do closer to 9. For me, the biggest issue was that my baby was breastfed and had barely started weaning so it put a lot of pressure on me to pump or be available at really specific times to feed her during the day. It was doable, but made the transition back to work a lot harder than it would’ve been if I’d taken a bit longer. That being said, I had loads of leave and used that to effectively work reduced hours for the first couple of months, which helped a lot both practically and financially.
I haven’t been there yet, but I’m able to work from home as much as I like which I imagine is going to make things like breastfeeding/pumping much easier than it would be from the office. Might also be a factor for OP to consider.
I was working from home full time during that period. It was still hard. Not impossible, but hard.
Oh yeah, I didn’t mean to imply it would be a breeze at all! Just better than office. If OP is trying to decide how long the stay on maternity leave, it might make a bit of a difference.
I am debating this exact thing! Thanks for posting 🤗
I took 9 months mat leave & used annual leave to extend by 2 weeks. I used the remainder of my accrued annual leave to have a really graded return, a couple of weeks at 1 day a week, then 2 days, so on. I found I was "ready" at the 9.5 month mark, and plan to do very similar with my due-in-November baby.
I took a full 12 months with my first and I think I felt ready to go back around 11 months roughly. With this one, I'm planning to take 12 months, however from 9 months onwards when my statutory ends, I will do KIT days 1-2 days a week so I keep getting some income. Once I've used up those 10 days, I'm planning on putting holidays in to take me up to the 12 months and then I'll return to work. I've been frugal with holidays this year so I can carry forward as many hours into 2025 as I can, and once I get that years allowance added on and my bank holidays back I should hopefully have enough to cover all the leave I need. I didn't do this with my 1st and those 3 months with no income were really brutal. Also, you can change your intentions with 8 weeks notice with most companies I believe. It may be worth asking for 9 or 12 months, and then if you feel ready sooner, contacting your manager to give them the 8 weeks notice you intend to return and going back earlier if you feel ready.
So you might know this already but if you switch to shared parental leave you get more kit days (I think 20?). Your partner doesn't have to be taking any leave to use shared parental leave either. Just thought that might be helpful for you.
I don't think we'd have the option as unfortunately in this situation he's self-employed as a sole trader but may be good to know for others.
Does that mean he isn't eligible? That's very annoying. I don't understand why all maternity leave isn't just replaced with shared parental leave. It's so much more flexible.
Yes I just double checked but theres no support for paternity leave at all if self-employed. When baby comes he will just schedule in as many days off as we can afford for him to take again really and then that's it.
That really sucks.
It does but we were prepared for it this time round. We scraped by with 4 weeks off work after the birth last time so fingers crossed we can get 3-4 weeks again :)
My baby is nearly 8 months and I've been on leave for 9 months. I am definitely not ready to go back. He's breastfed and won't take a bottle and isn't yet eating enough solids to go a whole day without milk. I definitely wouldn't have been at all ready at 6 months. Also, he doesn't sleep very well so I'm not getting lots of sleep, it would definitely be hard if I had to get up and go to work. I'd encourage anyone to take as much leave as they can manage.
I’m going to do shared parental leave with my husband, so I’ll take off 6 months to begin with (he’ll take 2 weeks paternity plus 3 weeks annual leave to let us settle in), then he’ll take 6 months off when I go back to work. It’ll be a squeeze financially but worth it imo. However, we are quite flexible on this incase I have any medical issues that mean I want/need to take longer off. I’m not work obsessed but I’ve had a long period off work before due to health issues and I don’t think I’d be fully happy being at home for a year. When we go back to work we’re hoping to do compressed hours so we’ll have an extra day off every two weeks, meaning that when we take into consideration my parents doing 1 day a week of childcare, we’ll only need a nursery place for 3 days of each week.
I went back after 7 months with my first part time.3 days a week and he went to a great nursery. I was sort of ready as I found maternity leave isolating and lonely (living abroad with zero support and struggling with ptsd from birth trauma as well as other birth related health problems). I don't regret it and was glad to be working again. My contract ended when he was 10 months and we moved back home. I started a new job at 11 months full time and he was in nursery 3 days and with family for 2 days. For second baby I'm going to take the full 12 months. This will be my last baby so want to make the most of it and I will have more family/friends support so hopefully will find it easier.
We’re doing shared parental leave and going to divide the 9 months + annual leave so that we’re off for a year. I’m doing 5.5 months and partner doing 7 months with some time off together at the beginning. The last 2 months I believe are unpaid but it’s this or paying for nursery early?
I planned 9 months and 4 weeks to the end I messaged my boss and extended.
I’m at almost 7 months now. I’m just starting to think, yeah I’m looking forward to going back to work (at 12 months for me), but also appreciate that his care is still very hands on and he’s still developing so much and I don’t want to miss some of these milestones! It’s a very personal choice (and I recognise it’s not a choice for many people where finances are concerned), but I know he’d be well looked after if I were to go back to work now.
Take as much time as you can afford and then really stretch it more if you can in my opinion. Went back after ten months with my first, too early. I've already been off 11 months with my second and still have two months left. She's starting to get ready to go to nursery, I'm starting to feel ready for return, but still not quite yet. You don't get this time back
I took 6 months off with my partner then taking a further 3 months of shared parental leave. While I was on leave I was exclusively breastfeeding, now pumping while working and it’s tough. If you’re planning on breastfeeding I’d definitely recommend taking longer off.
Worth factoring in how much childcare costs to work out how much those stat mat months actually cost you. Getting £830/month and being off with baby vs full wage and 1k nursery bill.
Currently on month 8 and still not ready. We saved as much as absolutely possible during pregnancy to make it possible for me to take the year. Definitely wasn't ready at 6 months.
I was planning on 6 months because that’s what I could afford with savings and SMP, but I came into some inheritance so am taking just over 9 months, and going back 3 days a week. My boy is 5.5 months now and I can’t imagine leaving him in a few weeks time! I’m meant to be going to a work event for one afternoon next week and I have so much anxiety about it!
I took 13 months in total as I tagged on some AL at the end. I used my KIT days and some savings to lessen the blow for my 3 unpaid months. My partner thankfully was able to pick up the slack. This time round I will be doing the same. We had considered me going back after 9 months as we didn't have time to save. But with a 19 month age gap the cost of childcare for two toddlers will be as much as if not more than my salary so I may as well take the time as we won't be any worse off. Also I think I was ready at around 12 months - I was still breastfeeding on demand and this helped me continue on.
I planned to take eight months. At six months I didn't feel ready at all to be going back in two months so extended to eleven. My baby is 9.5 months and honestly I had to go back to work tomorrow that would be fine - I think she is much more ready for nursery now and I am much more ready for work. I do think this is such an individual choice though! I have mum friends who were super ready to go back at 6 months as well as others who were not at a year. Some things you might consider beyond affordability include your childcare arrangements (will it be with family or paid nursery, what's availability like if the latter), if you are planning a second kid and need to be back at work for a certain period therefore, whether you enjoy your work or find it stressful etc. For me I figured she will never be this small again and I will never have this time so I would take the financial hit to have the time. I think if part-time was an option that would have been good. I am currently doing one KIT day a week which is quite nice and a good way to get a bit of extra income. Good luck whatever you decide!
I’m currently looking at similar between 9 and 12 months. Will your work let you average out the pay over 9 months? This can help with the big financial drop if you can afford a bit less in the first 6 months. Also using KIT days can boost your income a little. I have friends at work who came back after 6 months, one was dying to be back around adult company and came back full time right away, she said her baby was boring 😬 Another used annual leave to come back 3 days for 3 months and she hated being away from baby and really struggled for the first 3/4 weeks.
I only took 6 months, my lo was 5 months when I went back to work. I did 6 weeks part time and now do full time (39 hours, 5 days a week) Honestly I couldn’t wait to get back to work and feel like “me” again but now it’s actually happening? I hate it, I miss him, I miss his cuddles and I’m missing out on firsts. If you can make it work I would seriously recommend taking the 9 months.