The Real Challenge Isn't Maternity Leave, It's the Return to Work
- Jul 14
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 17
Isabel Theissen is an ICF-accredited motherhood & leadership coach with a background in digital marketing at leading global fashion brands. She supports modern mothers in navigating career and motherhood with more clarity, confidence, and compassion so they can thrive, personally and professionally.
When women tell me they’re preparing for maternity leave, the conversation usually revolves around logistics: when they will leave, who will cover their work, which projects need to be handed over, and which can be paused.
These conversations matter. But after working with women before, during, and after maternity leave, I’ve noticed something striking. Almost all the preparation focuses on leaving well. Very little focuses on returning well. That, in my experience, is where the real challenge begins.
The assumption that keeps setting women up to fail
The biggest challenge I see isn’t maternity leave itself. It’s the persistent assumption that nothing has really changed during a woman’s leave.
We might not say it out loud, but it is still widely expected that a woman will simply pick up where she left off and return as the same person she was before becoming a mother.
This “bounce back” expectation creates unnecessary pressure because it ignores two fundamental realities: motherhood changes you, and your workplace changes while you’re away.
When neither of these realities is acknowledged, women often return feeling like they’re failing when, in fact, they’re navigating an entirely new situation.
Two realities to consider when preparing for a more sustainable return to work
1. Motherhood changes you
Before I became a mother, I assumed I would continue living my life as I always had, just with a baby alongside me. Many women share that expectation. But there is no going back.
Motherhood is a profound transition. It reshapes your identity, your priorities, your relationships, and often your definition of success. You remain the same person at your core, but you are no longer only who you were before.
This transformation is known as matrescence, the developmental transition into motherhood. Just as adolescence changes us, matrescence represents a significant psychological, emotional, physical, and social evolution. Yet our workplaces rarely acknowledge this reality.
Instead, many women feel an unspoken expectation to return exactly as they were before they left. The more we expect women to “bounce back,” the more we inadvertently communicate that this transformation shouldn’t exist. But it does. It deserves to be recognized rather than resisted.
2. Your workplace doesn’t stand still either
While you’re on leave and adjusting to your new role as a mother, your organization continues to evolve. Teams are restructured, new colleagues join, trusted colleagues leave, strategies shift, leaders change, and projects move forward without you.
Many of the women I work with describe returning to what feels like an entirely different company. They’re not only adjusting to a new version of themselves; they’re also reentering a workplace that has changed.
That combination can feel deeply disorienting. It takes time to rebuild a rhythm, understand new dynamics, reconnect with colleagues, and discover how your professional identity fits alongside your new identity as a mother.
A more realistic and sustainable approach to maternity leave planning
Most maternity leave planning is designed around protecting the business while a woman is absent, but few organizations prepare her for a sustainable return. Instead of preparing women to return to their “old normal,” we need to prepare them to create a new one.
That means replacing the expectation of bouncing back with the opportunity to move forward and recognizing that reintegration is a process rather than a single day on the calendar. This shift benefits organizations just as much as employees.
When women are supported through this transition, they are more likely to remain engaged, contribute confidently, stay with the organization, and grow into even stronger leaders. Motherhood often develops remarkable strengths, such as greater empathy, sharper prioritization, increased resilience, and more intentional leadership, but these qualities only have space to emerge when women aren’t consumed by trying to prove they’re exactly who they used to be.
Ready to prepare differently?
The sooner we acknowledge that both the woman and the workplace evolve while she is on maternity leave, the sooner we can stop measuring success by how quickly someone “gets back to normal.”
If you’re preparing for maternity leave, or you’re an organization looking to better support women through this transition, I invite you to start planning beyond the handover.
Download my free Maternity Leave & Beyond guide, a practical resource designed to help you prepare for a more realistic leave transition. It helps create the conditions for sustainable success beyond the moment of returning to work, for women, leaders, and the organizations that depend on them.
Preparing for maternity leave isn’t only about leaving well; it’s about returning well, too.
Read more from Isabel Theissen
Isabel Theissen, Motherhood & Leadership Coach
Isabel Theissen is an ICF-accredited Motherhood & Leadership Coach dedicated to empowering women through one of life’s most transformative chapters, motherhood. Before coaching, Isabel built a career in digital marketing at global fashion brands including Tommy Hilfiger, H&M, Farfetch, and Ecco. Her experience in these fast-paced environments gives her firsthand insight into the challenges women face when juggling ambition with motherhood. Today, Isabel supports modern mothers in navigating career and motherhood with greater clarity, confidence, and compassion. Through her work, she supports mothers in creating space to thrive, both personally and professionally.
