• Pregnancy
  • Before you get pregnant: Information for all women
  • You're pregnant: Now what?
  • Getting ready for baby
  • Childbirth and beyond
    • Labor and birth
    • Your baby's first hours of life
    • Recovering from birth
    • Newborn care and safety
    • Getting pregnant again
    • Returning to work – Share your story
    • Babysitters and child care
  • Mom-to-be tools
  • Government in action on pregnancy
• Pregnancy in Spanish (en español)

My pregnancy was unplanned, and soon my life as a workaholic came to a screeching halt with the birth of my beautiful son. I have only been to work for about two months, and I am still struggling to find a balance. Most mornings it is near impossible to leave my son and head into the office, however making the choice to become a single mom I knew that I would have to return back to work soon. Even tho i work for a local government, if I had not been a workaholic with little to no social life and never went on vacation, I would not have been able to spend the 3 months home that I was able to. It is time to have a real, merit-based discussion about providing all mothers with protected PAID maternity leave. I know if I did not have my vacation days, I would have been forced to either go back to work 2 or 3 weeks after giving birth or, face the consequences of not getting any compensation or healthcare benefits during my "protected" FMLA leave.

I'm a 57 year old mother of 4. My "children" are now 32, 30, 21, and 18. Memories are still pretty vivid. When my daughters were born, I was privileged to stay at home. My circumstances changed later, with a second marriage, and I had 2 boys. After maternity leave of 6 months, I had to go back to work and it broke my heart. I did a gradual return to work, working part-time for the first month. I chose to have in-home care for them, which made life easier for the first year. The transition was emotionally difficult. I missed my babies so much. With changes to maternity benefits in Canada, women are now able to stay home for the first year.

I'm now a grandmother, but it seems that pregnancy is a passion of mine. I've attended and assisted with childbirth with 12 women. I use great sites like womenshealth.gov to do my research and provide accurate, informative and up to date content at http://letstalkpregnancy.com Hope you'll come by and visit, share your stories and comments.

All my life I wanted a baby. When I was a child, I would stuff my stomach to make believe I was pregnant. Later on in my life, those fantasies turned into reality ... I was a teen mom. I was so shocked by my pregnancy that I didn’t even want the baby. But as soon as I pushed out a living and breathing human being, all those bad thoughts just went away. I felt so much happier and so blessed to be a mom. Even if I wasn’t a total grown-up, I was still a mother :)

After having my second child, I returned to work after 6 weeks of postnatal care and bonding with my baby. I felt a need to go back to work because, at the time, I thought it was needed and necessary. My husband was in the military and was sent oversees to do a tour while I stayed stateside. I was not surrounded by family, but I did have newly found military wives that later became my friends. I found a babysitter where I lived, and I felt I could trust her. She was wonderful. I not only worked one job, but I worked a second job three nights a week. I stopped after two months. When my husband returned after 12 months, I felt the crunch of time lost with my children. I felt I lost the first year of my youngest child’s life. My husband reassured me that I was a good mom and that I did the best I could. From that time on, if my husband worked days, then I worked nights and vice versa. We were always there for our kids. We only used babysitters when we had date night. Now my first oldest daughter is married and has my granddaughter. She also has a degree in art history and art administration. My second oldest has a Masters degree in psychology and is engaged to be married. Our relationship couldn't be better.

I was unemployed when I became pregnant. It was an unplanned pregnancy, which added to the stress of the situation. I am a single mother, and I am currently going to school online. Once my daughter arrived, I never stopped going to school, but my personality type does better with a schedule. So, once I started working, I had more energy and wanted to make sure that I did certain activities with her every day. I graduated with my associate degree, and I am still in school. I think that my daycare is the one thing that gives me piece of mind. She is safe, and she loves her teachers. I still feel like it is my responsibility to make sure she gets what she needs development wise. So, I must say it is hard to leave her, but it makes me want to get back to her that much more. From this experience I want two more kids. What helps me is being prepared, getting in some “me time,” and keeping track of my short- and long-term goals.

I used to be a workaholic, and I did not notice time passing by. I worked so hard to make it to the top of the corporate ladder, but there was something missing. At the age of 39, I still had no baby. I was quite frustrated that I had all the money in the world and I had fulfilled my dreams, but I was not happy.

Quitting my job was the best decision of my life. I became a housewife, and after 2 years I had baby. It was very difficult to adapt at first, but it's about setting priorities and goals. I am a full-time housewife now, and I spend my time with my baby and making a blog to share my story.

I hope that my story will inspire you and change the way you live. Life is short, and it is not only our dreams and money that makes us happy. It is our loved ones that most of the time we don't notice. Cheers

I had twelve weeks of maternity leave, so I went back when my daughter was almost three months old. She went to her grandparents' home while I was at work. Many days, I would try to leave around lunchtime so that I could go see her and nurse her, but that wasn't always possible. I missed her terribly, though it was good to get out and do something besides just being a parent. I wished, and still wish, I could have worked half-time for the first year or so. Just saying the words "I missed her" doesn't really convey how grief-stricken I felt when I started going back to work. We'd spent those first three months together for almost every waking moment, and the idea that I was going to start missing large parts of her life was heartbreaking. It does get better, though. Being with her grandparents (and later, in a good day care) has been a great experience for her -- she's happy and healthy and learning a lot, and is her own person. I don't need to be with her every second to love her or know her or be her mom, just as I don't need to be with my husband every second. Don't let anyone tell you you're not your child's mother if you work outside the home. Believe me, you are, and your child knows it and loves you.

Returning to work was a little difficult for a while, especially dropping off a 6-week old at daycare. Had a really hard time with it. Now, she's almost 2 years old. Getting everything done at home after work is nearly impossible sometimes. Honestly, I just don't feel the same about working. Need to make money to support my family but would like to spend more time with the little one also.

Before I had my baby, the 8-week maternity leave I had arranged with my employer seemed like an eternity. But after giving birth to my beautiful son, that time flew by in a blink of an eye. Although I only had to take care of myself and my new son, it took me at least 6 weeks to feel somewhat human again. No one can prepare a new mother for the exhaustion she will feel in those first few weeks. Once I felt well-rested enough to enjoy my new baby, I only had a couple weeks more before I needed to be back on the job. Thankfully, I already had daycare arranged. So I used this time to practice pumping (I was breastfeeding) and feeding my baby with a bottle. To be honest, I was looking forward to going back to work. But I felt guilty for feeling this way. And I was scared that I couldn't handle the demands of my job and the demands of a new baby — especially with limited sleep. Even so, I knew that we couldn't afford to have me stay home full-time. I also knew that I liked working and that it was an important source of personal fulfillment. So, now, when I feel guilty about leaving my son and heading off to work in the morning (and I still do sometimes), I remind myself that all his basic needs are being met. He is in a safe and loving environment. And it turns out, I have more energy to give to him at the end of the workday then I did when I was at home with him all day long. I think that's better for both of us.