How long did you take off work for maternity leave, before and after the birth of your baby? Was your employer understanding about it?

I took maternity leave from a paid volunteer position that I had when I was pregnant with my son. It was a receptionist job in a hospital volunteer program. I worked right up to the day I went into labor. I took the 6 week maternity leave, went back to work for a month, but gave them 30 day notice that I was going to stay at home and take care of my daughter and son. They understood and I helped them pick an excellant person to replace me...my sister...lol

DCMerkle

I never took maternity leave. I just worked as long as I could, had the baby and then went back to work after the baby was born somewhere else.

seeker

Heck even the men get maternity leave now. My job is going to give me a week off when the baby comes. I'm happy with that, I wasn't expecting any other than what I took out of my vacation time.

When I went on Mat leave they were all understanding and supportive. It was hard because I was spearheading a major project, but the reality is I was doing a poor job of it. My attention span was gone. In fact, just my attention was. I couldn't focus on anything, I'd pick up the phone, and it would take the phone off the hook tone to make me realize that not only had I not gone any further, but I totally couldn't remember the last few minutes and I had no idea how long I'd been sitting like that. So not only were they supportive, they were probably relieved. Although they never said anything about it... LOL

You could see a little bit of bitterness when I came in towards the end of my mat leave and told them I wasn't coming back. We needed to relocate to find a place we could afford (My son was born in santa barbara california where a STUDIO apartment is WELL over a grand a month). And I was going to be a SAHM. So we really needed to move to be able to afford an apt.

But yeah.. I'm long winded today... haha

I think it is so sad that it's realistically a hardship for many mothers to stay home with their babies these days. I undertand some don't want to, but for many families, sacrificing the woman's income is a hardship they can't consider.