Mum shares the ugly truth about maternity leave

We’ve all been there, saying how lucky a colleague is to have three whole months off, six in some cases, to spend time with her adorable baby. What many of us don’t realise is what being on maternity leave actually entails.

One mum took to LinkedIn to share the reality that is maternity/paternity leave in the hopes that employers and colleagues for that matter, can understand what really goes on.

“Maternity/paternity leave is not ‘a holiday’. It’s not a ‘nice break’ and it’s not time off,” wrote Anna Whitehouse, who is a working mum.

She went on to list the realities that parents face during that time that the rest of the world often overlooks.

“It’s stripping yourself back to a primal state and nakedly navigating blocked milk ducts, torn stitches, bloody sheets, broken minds…

“You are needed. Every second you are needed.”

She goes on to give an example of the life of a new mum saying, “It’s hobbling to the park post-birth, riding an oxytocin high; returning home, crumpling into a foetal position, succumbing to a postnatal low.”

Whereas many assume maternity leave is like a holiday, Anna corrected them terming this as a job that has no sick days or fair remuneration.

“It’s the starkest of contrasts,” she wrote comparing the struggles new mums face to the joy they experience holding their newborns. She calls this ‘the purest happiness’.

“It’s raising others higher, above your hunger, above your exhaustion, above your needs,” she concludes. “It’s raising the next generation.”