In Episode 17 of Get Mom Ready, we sat down with an actual outline (growth 🫠) and started a very honest conversation about maternity leave. Not the Instagram-perfect version. The real one. The one filled with responsibility, uncertainty, identity questions, and a lot of “I guess we’ll see.”
We didn’t even make it through everything we planned to cover—and honestly, that feels on brand. Because maternity leave itself rarely fits neatly into a checklist.
Here’s where we landed.
Maternity Leave Looks Different for Everyone
One of the most grounding parts of this conversation was hearing how different our experiences have been:
Corporate leadership roles with a lot of responsibility (and self-imposed pressure)
Clinical roles with clients who needed continuity of care
Startup environments where preparation felt urgent and all-consuming
Fractional, flexible work where holding things loosely wasn’t just helpful—it was necessary
There is no “right” maternity leave story. And if you’re trying to measure yours against someone else’s, you’re already carrying more weight than you need to.
The Real Work Starts With Mindset
Before a single checklist or document, we talked about mindset because how you think about maternity leave shapes how you experience it.
A few themes that kept surfacing:
Notice where you fall on the spectrum. Are you tightly wound and prone to over-preparing? Or more go-with-the-flow and likely to under-communicate? Awareness helps you calibrate.
Low expectations aren’t pessimistic—they’re protective. Maternity leave is not a productivity hack. It’s not three months of “free time.” It’s a season of massive physical, emotional, and identity change.
Practice grace now. Not later. Not once the baby arrives. Start now. Because you’ll need those reps when things inevitably go sideways.
One of our favorite reminders: you don’t suddenly become a grace-filled person the moment maternity leave starts. You practice that muscle ahead of time.
Preparing the People Around You Matters Too
Maternity leave isn’t just about you stepping away—it’s about how others step in.
We talked about:
Giving teammates, clients, or partners options instead of assumptions
Naming what you don’t know yet and setting expectations accordingly
Remembering that conversations alone aren’t enough—people remember things differently
Which leads to…
Yes, Documentation Actually Helps
This episode wasn’t anti-checklist. It was anti-thinking a checklist will save you.
What does help:
Writing things down (even simply)
Documenting daily, weekly, and monthly responsibilities
Giving people access to processes before you’re already exhausted
Accepting that people will still do things differently, and that’s not a failure
Preparation is not about control. It’s about clarity.
And sometimes, it’s about peace of mind when you come back and realize decisions were made without you (because they always are).
A Gentle Reframe We Kept Coming Back To
Even if you prepare perfectly:
Things will change
Decisions will be made
Work will move forward
You will not be the same person when you return
And that’s not something to fix.
For many of us, maternity leave is the first time our identity stretches beyond work in a way we can’t ignore. That can be disorienting and also deeply formative.
We’re Not Done With This Conversation
We paused this episode before diving into:
Financial preparation
More realistic expectations around returning to work
Because those deserve their own space, and we’ll be back with them soon.
For now, if you’re approaching maternity leave, we hope this episode felt like someone sitting next to you saying:
“You’re not doing this wrong. You’re just doing something new.”
🎧 Listen to Episode 17 here or wherever you get your podcasts
💌 Get weekly episodes, resources, and updates right here at Get Mom Ready
🤍 Know a mom preparing for maternity leave? Share this episode with her.
And remember—you don’t have to have it all figured out to be getting ready.
