Returning To Work After Maternity: Tips, Tricks To Keep Organized And Decrease Anxiety
The beginning of maternity leave serves great pleasure as you feel you have ample amount of time with your little one. But soon after a few weeks, the greater transition comes when you have to return to your workplace, that too leaving behind your little child. Returning from maternity leave is perhaps the most difficult emotional roller coaster that a new mom gets through. It triggers different feelings where you would want to be with your child and on the other hand, you would also want to keep a balance with your career and job. Even the thought of returning back to work after maternity leave is very stressful, leave aside when the day of returning actually arrives. Being away from your baby and adjusting to the whole new challenge of getting back to the workplace, can be physically and mentally exhausting.
It is very important to create a balance between your motherhood and professional life, but that should not come at the cost of making you feel guilty. Never feel that if you are returning to work, it would make you less good of a mother. Rather, you are setting an example for your little one that being a mother offers you with great superpowers to balance both home and professional life.
Tips to Ticks to Keep Yourself Organized and Decrease the Anxiety
Never feel guilty: Guilt is an emotion that triggers inside us while doing something wrong. But, if you are a new mother, it is important for you to understand that while you decide to return to work to support your family or balance your career, you choose to do nothing wrong. You may feel a little anxiety about leaving your child, but let go of the guilt, to remain stress-free.
Get in touch with your employer: A little anxiety before returning to work is inevitable, so talking to your employer in advance might bring down the stress level. Having a casual conversation with your employer will give you insights on new projects that are currently going on, any other technical changes that you need to have hands on, and this will help to get comfortable at the workplace. You can also place requests with your employer, if you want flexible working hours or flexibility in meeting deadlines with projects. Also, speak to your employer about your responsibilities and workload during normal days, so that you can adjust your breastfeeding time, day-care management and new work schedule. When you are at your workplace, try speaking to some new mothers to know how they manage work after maternity leave.
Practice Dry run: A dry run is a kind of practice day that you should follow a day or two before the actual day of returning to office. This will give you insights about how much time you need to breastfeed your baby, how many hours will it take to reach the office and day-care and other small kinks. Spend a day with the child-care provider to know about your child’s needs and what it takes to make him feel comfortable with the new environment.
Get organised a night before the actual day of return: Organising all the stuff and getting prepared for the next day, makes the morning easier and hassle-free. Decide on your clothes, change your handbag, put all the important stuff, prepare the baby's bag with diapers, wipes, nappies, clothes and toys, a night before. After a tiring day you might not feel the need to keep things organised, but it is surely an effective way to save plenty of your time and keep you stress free.
Find the right amount of work: While you were away on your maternity leave, the workplace must have gone through various changes and you might feel outcast or sidelined. Just make sure to fulfil all your work commitments that you are expected to do as a professional. If you are not given any challenging assignments, due to the fact that you just had a baby, go ahead and ask for it, if you think you are prepared. It will always be challenging to manage a child and your workplace responsibilities, but with the right balance, the whole schedule can be less chaotic.
Try and Cope up with stress and tiredness: Try and carve out special time to bond with your little one so that he or she does not feel that there is any sort of growing distance between you two. You would also have to learn to balance the most difficult part of the day, which is when you return from office and your child also returns from day-care. Both you and your child would be very much tired during that time of the day, but you need to have patience. Slowly and gradually, your baby will also be aware of your routine and he might know what to expect next.
At times, you might sit down and re-consider the idea of returning back to work. Many new mothers start to feel that returning to the workplace was a bad idea. All new mothers have to struggle in the initial days so that there is no lag with their careers. Initially, it may be very psychologically and physically challenging, but once your routine is sorted, everything will fall into place. During this time, do not forget to take good care of yourself, and remember nobody gets to perfection immediately.