June 10, 2025
If someone in your team is having a baby, here’s what you might not have considered
Becoming a parent changes everything. While many companies focus on the logistics of maternity leave – start dates, KIT (keep in touch) days, flexible working requests, the reality of becoming a mother is far more complex, far more emotional, and far more enduring.
Before I became a coach, I spent over a decade running a business that supported new and expecting parents. I worked with families to help them navigate the very real, very practical parts of life with a baby or life with two (or more).
Sleep. Feeding. Sibling jealousy. Nursery drop-offs. Toddler tantrums. Mealtimes, bath times, GP appointments, potty training, starting school.
Now, as a back-to-work coach, I support women navigating one of the biggest transitions in their careers: maternity leave and the return to work. It’s a time full of change, emotionally, physically, mentally, and yet it’s often handled as just another calendar event.
The cost of getting it wrong
While this is a deeply human transition, it has very real commercial consequences.
- 1 in 3 women don’t return to the same employer after maternity leave (MMB Magazine, 2022).
- 57% of women leave their employer within two years of returning, often due to inadequate support and lack of flexibility (HR News, 2023).
- A 2023 survey by Parentaly found that 36% of women left their jobs within 18 months of returning from paid parental leave and just 4% became stay-at-home parents. Most weren’t opting out, they were moving on.
- Replacing a mid-level employee costs between £30,000 and £50,000, and significantly more for senior roles.
- The wider cost to the UK economy is estimated at £23 billion a year, due to mothers leaving the workforce.
Behind these numbers are capable, committed professionals, many of them leaders in the making, who leave not because they lack ambition, but because they don’t feel supported.
This isn’t about adding perks. It’s about keeping your people, protecting institutional knowledge, and creating a culture where high performers can return and thrive.
Why Maternity coaching matters
Most women I coach aren’t short on ambition or talent. But what they are short on is space:
- Space to think clearly
- Space to reconnect with their professional identity
- Space to make decisions without guilt
- Space to ask: What do I want now?
That’s what coaching offers. Not pressure to do more or be more, but permission to reflect and move forward in a way that feels right for them.
Sometimes we talk about confidence. Sometimes logistics. Sometimes identity, boundaries, childcare, or even grief for a version of life that’s shifted. It’s rarely one thing. More often, it’s everything.
The unseen complexity of coming back
Returning to work isn’t just about turning up. It’s about re-establishing your place in a team while quietly managing everything that’s going on at home, the childcare logistics and the emotional pull of being away from your child.
Often, all of that is happening in the background while someone is trying to focus, perform, and prove they’re still committed. It’s a constant mental juggle, one that rarely gets talked about, but takes a huge amount of energy.
And if you’re returning after a second (or third) child, there’s even more to manage, from sibling dynamics to sleep deprivation, from school runs to settling into new routines.
These pressures aren’t always visible to colleagues or managers. But they’re real and they affect how confident, connected, and capable someone feels at work.
The kind of support that makes people stay
When parental leave is handled well, it doesn’t just boost morale. The right support reminds women that they still belong in the professional world they stepped away from and that they don’t have to figure it all out alone.
If someone in your team is preparing for or returning from maternity leave, pause and ask: What would help them feel valued, capable, and genuinely included?
The answer probably isn’t just policy. It’s more likely to be a thoughtful conversation, a sense of trust, and the reassurance that they’re still seen and supported.
This transition is a pivotal one. Get it right, and you’ll see greater loyalty, stronger engagement, and deeper trust. You’ll protect valuable knowledge and reinforce a culture where high standards and empathy go hand in hand. Get it wrong, and talent quietly walks away.
If you’re a parent navigating your return to work, a leader supporting someone through this transition, or an HR professional looking to strengthen how your organisation supports working parents – I’d love to connect.
This is a conversation I care deeply about. The more we talk about it, the better we can do for individuals, teams, and organisations alike.
Eilish Saba Coaching 