In Bloom Doula Services

Similarly to insurance, maternity leave is different for every woman. It may depend on your insurance or employer, state laws, or the type of work you’re in. For me, I’m a teacher in southeast Texas. My district allowed for 6 weeks of unpaid maternity leave after a year of employment. Thankfully by the time I delivered my first I had just passed the year of employment threshold. I also had purchased “disability leave” through my insurance policy, which allowed me to take an additional 6 weeks, with partial pay. I added this to my policy when I was first hired, just in case I got pregnant, which I did. The extra 6 weeks with partial pay spread out helped us make my car payment, but that was about it. Maternity leave is a necessary evil. You need the time to recover. To learn how to mother. To adjust to your new life with a new baby, and to spend time with that baby, but financially, maternity leave can be burdensome. And as far as work is concerned, it can be extremely stressful.

I have no desire to get political on my blog, but I’m sure you can imagine that the state of maternity leave in America is infuriatingly terrible. 6 weeks is not enough (I took 12 weeks, and ended up with 15 once Christmas and Thanksgiving break were added in, but 6 weeks is standard.) I needed to be with my baby and my baby needed to be with me. We weren’t ready, and although we made it work and we are fine now, we suffered. Going back to work at 15 weeks still took a physical, emotional and mental toll on me especially, but also my son.

This time around I am not taking a maternity leave per se, because my second baby will be born the week before summer vacation begins. I will take off the remainder of the school year following my due date, and use my summer vacation as maternity leave. I will miss about two weeks of work total. Due to financial reasons I honestly couldn’t afford to take the 12 weeks I did with my first again. My family depends on my income and 6, let alone 12 weeks without pay would be tough. I will be out of personal leave days by my due date, so will go without about 2 weeks worth of pay, but I have no way around that.
Preparing for maternity leave can be stressful, especially the first time around when you don’t know what to expect, but it is possible to be as prepared as possible to make your actual maternity leave following the birth of your baby peaceful and distraction free, as far as work is concerned at least.

Begin the Paperwork

The first thing you should do is talk to your HR department or the financial supervisor. Whoever oversees FMLA for your job. Contact them to discuss what your leave will be like and get the paperwork started. We discussed my payment options, which allowed me to choose if I wanted to get my 6 weeks of partial pay in the 6 weeks, or spread throughout the year. I was only on leave for 12 weeks (15 if you include holidays) but I didn’t get a full paycheck for 8 months. It was brutal. We established my leave dates, and I got all the paperwork I needed to take to my midwife. My midwife had to sign things to prove I would be medically unable to work for the 6-12 weeks I would be out of work, and approve the date of my return. Like I said every district, state, and job is different no woman seems to have the same exact options when it comes to leave so make sure you have a good understanding of what is available to you.

Budget

Once you know how long you will be out and the type of budget you’ll be working with, it is important to budget and save. Trust me, I know that’s hard to do. Saving on a teachers income with all the temptations and expenses that come along with preparing for a baby was near impossible, but having all the money set aside, that your family may need, will come in handy. Maybe even try living on the limited budget for several months and save the difference to have a cushion to fall back on if needed. You never know what will come up. Three days postpartum my husband’s car broke down, and I had a rude awakening once I found out how much my insurance premium was increasing by once I added Holden to our plan. Budget. Budget. Budget.

Set Your Sub/Temp/ Co-workers Up for Success

Prepare whoever will be covering you while you’re out at least a month before your leave begins. For me that was my long term sub. My sub was a retired teacher, so I wasn’t worried at all that she had everything under control, but I needed lesson plans. Making lesson plans can be very time consuming, let alone 12 weeks worth. I spent hours staying late at the school typing up agendas, finding materials and organizing it all. I left my sub with a folder full of all of the information needed to run my classroom. Then in a crate with file folders for each week I organized the lesson plans per week and within that week had a folder for each day. The only thing she’d need to do would be make the copies for the class and then teach the lesson.

I never had any issues or was ever contacted at any point during my leave for questions or concerns. I’d recommend thinking of all the things that could go wrong, or think of questions they may have and leave the solutions and answers in a designated space that way they can consult your resource first before coming to you. Whether you have a substitute, a temp, or just have co workers taking care of business while you’re out, try to cross all your t’s and dot your I’s by 36 weeks so you can leave, whenever that may, be with everything covered.

Say thank you!

I had tons of support at work throughout the end of my pregnancy and while on leave. My team I work with took care of everything. They not only threw me a shower and had my students write me tons of sweet cards, they held down the fort while I was out. I’m sure there were some weird issues that came up while I was out, but they kept it going and never made it my problem. I left my sub a small gift (I unfortunately don’t have a picture of it) but it was just a basket with fun things like candy, lotion, a mug and a card to show how thankful I was that someone was taking care of everything while I took care of my baby, and myself. Don’t forget to write thank you cards for the gifts you may receive too! Here I am at my adorable baby shower thrown by my co-workers in all my 9 months pregnant, swollen feet glory.

Get it done early- don’t procrastinate!

The last thing you want to be doing is rushing as your due date approaches to get everything prepared. Plus you have things to do at home too to prepare for the new arrival. Get work take care of and out of the way. Plus, you never know if you will deliver early. Once you’re full term, anything goes. If you get everything ready for your leave by your 36th week you should be good to go. Delivering early is my biggest fear this time around. And the though of not having anything prepared for the sub terrifies me, so I may have a few weeks prepped ahead of time, just in case. Second babies have a statistical tendency to come a little earlier than their older siblings. I am not holding my breath, but I’d rather be too ready than unprepared.

Have a plan!

I, like many working women, am working up until the due date. However, once you are full term labor could happen whenever. The last thing I want is to go into labor at work. I don’t want the stress, and I don’t want to make a 50 minute drive having contractions with a co-worker, or alone, for that matter. Even though it is not ideal, it isn’t outside the realm of possibilities, so having a set plan in place to handle everything if labor were to begin at work is important. Discuss this with your co-workers too. Or at least have a plan to contact the important people and help you get to where you need to go if the need arises.

It’s a lot of work to prepare for a new baby. Hopefully this list can give you a sense of where to begin, at least when it comes to work. If you are preparing for the big leave just know everything will work out. Prepare, but don’t stress out. Take your time, but start early, and don’t procrastinate. You’ve got this Momma!!