Usenet Writings

Time Off After Birth

©1994 Beth Weiss, Posted to misc.kids.prengnacy Usenet newsgroup, September 27, 1995

Three months is not that long of a time to take off after the birth of a baby.  That doesn't mean people may not need to go back to work that soon, but it's not that long.  Recovery time, depending on the woman, can be anywhere from a couple of days to 6-8 weeks.    Setting up childcare for a newborn can be very difficult; many centers and homes have an age requirement.

And then there's the exhaustion factor; new parents don't get much sleep.  I know one woman who went back to work part-time at 2.5 weeks--I thought then (and still think now) that she was crazy.  (I don't think money was the issue; she just thought they "needed" her at work--my reaction would have been "tough luck".  She didn't go back that soon with her second!)  I went back part-time at 5.5 weeks--and it was way too soon.  I was barely ready to think about working a few hours at a time, and all of a sudden I was putting in three full days a week.

For breastfeeding moms, there are additional complications: getting the supply established, pumping successfully, getting the child accustomed to a bottle.

The first month or so, many people do little more than care for the child, and take care of their own basic hygiene.  It can take an hour to get ready to leave the house (gathering everything up), getting the child into the car seat is still awkward and time consuming, the baby needs to eat (for 20-30 minutes at a time) every couple of hours--it can be an exhausting time.

There's also the "sharing your baby's first months" feeling--for many parents, leaving their child those first few months is very difficult.  I know everyone has their own threshold; for some it's a few weeks, others a few years, but three months is pretty common, I think, for those moms who are returning to work at all.

I am not speaking for all moms; some people have very different experiences.  I think that what I've described, though, is representative of a lot of new moms--and so I can understand someone wanting to take three months off.