My First Day As A Working Mother

Photo by Anete Lūsiņa on Unsplash

In India, maternity leave is offered for 26 weeks, post which you need to go back to work. Because I wanted to utilize most of the leave for my time with baby, I decided to work until the very last day of my pregnancy. I consider myself lucky as I could do so without many hurdles.

To be honest I was very apprehensive as to how I would leave my 5 and half month old daughter behind at home for the whole day. Precisely for 10 hours! Yeah too much, isn’t it? She was on breast milk until then, will she suddenly get used to solid food? Can she sense my absence? Will she forget me? It may be silly of me to think like this, but had hundreds to thoughts running in my mind.

I know some so many working mothers have been doing this for a long time now. I am not the only one! So I decided that I need to create a strategy. So I made a meal plan for her, which I started to try with her 10 days before my resuming day. I could see that she was gradually getting used to the new system. Had some misses, some hits, but looked like it could work.

Now comes the first day of office. As much excited I was to resume, I was equally anxious for my daughter. I am blessed with supporting in-laws, so I knew she was in good hands. I woke up early, cooked breakfast and lunch for the family, prepared my daughter’s food, and got ready. Wait, that’s not all! I breastfed my daughter and got her to sleep after. I kept all her meals ready and finally had to take the first step towards the office. Phew!

With teary eyes, glanced back many times at my sleeping daughter with tears in eyes. I was feeling guilty to leave her. Why am I doing this? Was earning money more important than my daughter? But then I thought, I am not working just to earn, right? It is because I like to work and being independent. I want to be a role model for my daughter. So when the time comes she will get the courage to do the same.

So, kissed her on her forehead fondly and whispered in her ears, ‘Take care of yourself, my dearest’ My husband touched my back and assured me that she would be fine. I told my MIL to call me if she needs me. And with a very heavy heart, finally, I stepped outside the home. I don’t remember my way to the office, how I drove or which signals I stopped at. I was constantly thinking about her.

At the office, I had to catch up with so many things. 6 months’ worth of backlog emails. All my colleagues were asking me to show my daughter’s photos, which I did very proudly. Now coming to the most important part of the day – calling to check on my daughter. I called my MIL to check on her immediately after reaching, then after an hour, again during lunchtime, 2 hours later once more. I don’t think I have ever called my MIL so many times in a day. Ha-ha!

Anyways! All in all, I had a productive day. The meal plan worked out fantastically. Of course, I had to research a lot. Google and bloggers being my best friends. During this time I got support from so many mothers whom I have never met, and I don’t think I ever will. Of course, I tailored the meal plan according to my daughter’s appetite.  Would you like to know my daughter’s schedule, which excludes milk, sugar, and salt?

Here are also some useful tips on how to resume back to work after giving maternity leave!

Mayuri N Baldota, a working mother to an energetic 10-month-old daughter. She is an avid reader, a believer, a traveler, who wants her daughter to grow into a kind and courageous woman.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of The Mom Store.