Self employed mum to be & mat leave/mum life

Hello, I'm self employed and have been for the last 3 years, I'm due on the 17th January 2025 and would love to hear from other self employed mums or mums to be on what they did with their first child, when did you go on "mat leave"? I want to work for as long as possible and saveoney but is it realistic? How long did you managed to take off, and how did you slowly get back into work? Could you work 1 day a week here and there after taking 3/4 months fully off (ideally that's the minimum I want to take if we can financially). Starting to think about it and would love to hear from others. Thank you so much x

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Hey I'm self employed. I'm officially going on Mat leave at 37 weeks but going to a little hour or so if I feel up to it up to 39 weeks. I'm then planning a min of 6 weeks off and doing 1 day a week until around 4-5 months then going back to 3 days (my full hours) x

@Natalie thank you for your comment! That's quite a good idea to leave a little early but to do an hour or so here and there if you feel good. I guess I'm a marketing consultant so I'd need to make sure I had a short project or some consultancy hours to be able to do that but that's good you've got the option! That sounds like a good plan! Wishing you all the best! 😊

Also self employed! I started to wind down from 38 weeks & worked 3ish hrs per day all the way up until 2 days before my due date as my contractions started! My LG is 8 weeks old & I’ve managed to do a couple of hours work last month. I told 2 of my clients that I’d be back supporting after 3ish months, which is about 1/2 a day a week. I’ll slowly build back up over time & work during nap times / evenings / with partners help until my LG goes to nursery when she’s 1 next year. I know it’s not going to be the easiest but I really don’t want to send her to nursery any sooner than that.

@Arti thanks Arti! That's great to know. As I work from home on a laptop, I'm hoping I'll be able to do some work in early Jan still. I love the flexibility of self employment but maternity leave is a bit stressful financially when self employed 🙈 That's what I'm hoping I can do too, couple of hours every day for example. And nursery is soooo expensive, I would also rather work around it. Thanks for your thoughts / experience! X

i’m self employed and i’m only having 2 weeks off. unfortunately id loose my 6 years worth of clients if i had more time off :( x

@Leah Awww Leah I'm so sorry to hear, could you hire someone temporary to replace you in the meantime? To cover for you for a little longer so you can have more time with your baby? That sounds so so tough to only take 2 weeks. Can your partner not help financially either? You'd hope your clients would be understanding...

no i wouldn’t be able too, im a lash tech you see. my partner could but i just couldn’t risk losing my clients. i think max i could have off is about a month xxx

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