Returning to work after maternity leave: a practical guide for new mothers
The months before returning to work after maternity leave can feel like standing at the edge of a very large change. You have navigated the first weeks and months of your baby's life, built new routines from scratch, and shifted your sense of who you are in ways you may still be piecing together. Now you face another transition, one that involves practical logistics, legal rights, and a great deal of feeling, all at the same time.
This guide covers the statutory rights you have under UK law, what to discuss with your employer before going back, your options for childcare and the costs involved, the emotional reality of this moment, and what to do practically in those first days. It also addresses what happens if the job you left has changed while you were away, and what your options are if you decide not to return at all.
Your statutory rights when returning to maternity leave
UK law gives every employed mother a set of guaranteed rights around maternity leave and the return to work, regardless of how long she has been employed, how many hours she works, or the size of the organisation she works for.
Maternity leave runs up to 52 weeks. The first 26 weeks are called Ordinary Maternity Leave (OML). The following 26 weeks are Additional Maternity Leave (AML). Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) is paid for up to 39 weeks of that leave: the first 6 weeks at 90 percent of your average weekly earnings, and the next 33 weeks at whichever is lower between that 90 percent figure and the flat statutory rate. The final 13 weeks of your 52-week entitlement are unpaid at the statutory level, unless your employer offers a more generous contractual scheme.
You do not have to take all 52 weeks. If you want to return earlier than planned, you need to give your employer at least 8 weeks notice of your new return date. If you return at the end of your full leave, no notice is required. You cannot return to work within the first two weeks after your baby is born (four weeks if you work in a factory setting), as this is the compulsory maternity leave period.
Your employment rights are protected throughout maternity leave. You continue to accrue holiday entitlement, pension contributions are maintained, and you retain the right to any pay rises or contractual improvements that apply to your role while you are away. Your employer cannot make you redundant simply because you are pregnant or on maternity leave. If a genuine redundancy situation arises while you are on leave, you must be offered any suitable alternative vacancy before other employees at risk.
Your right to return to your job
The right to return depends on whether you have taken OML, AML, or the full 52 weeks.
After Ordinary Maternity Leave (the first 26 weeks), you have an unqualified right to return to exactly the same job, on the same terms and conditions. Your employer cannot offer you a different role, reduce your responsibilities, change your contractual hours, or alter your pay without your agreement. If they do any of these things, it may amount to unlawful detriment or constructive dismissal.
After Additional Maternity Leave (weeks 27 to 52), the right is to return to the same job if it is reasonably practicable to do so. If it is not reasonably practicable, your employer must offer you a suitable alternative role on terms and conditions that are no less favourable. The bar for what counts as reasonably practicable is high: your employer cannot simply decide it is more convenient to give you a different job. If you believe the alternative you have been offered is not genuinely equivalent, you may have a claim.
In practice, most employers do not distinguish carefully between OML and AML returners and simply bring people back to the same role. But it is worth knowing where the legal lines are, particularly if your employer seems to be suggesting that things have changed while you were away.
Flexible working and keeping in touch days
Two tools are particularly useful in the period around your return: the right to request flexible working, and keeping in touch days.
Since April 2024, all employees have the right to request flexible working from their very first day of employment. Previously this right only applied after 26 weeks of service. You can make one formal flexible working request every 12 months. Your employer must consider the request seriously, consult with you, and respond within two months. If they refuse, they must give one of eight statutory business reasons for doing so. The reasons include the burden of additional costs, inability to reorganise work among existing staff, inability to recruit additional staff, a detrimental effect on quality or performance, insufficient work during the proposed hours, and planned structural changes.
Common flexible working requests on returning from maternity leave include reduced hours, compressed hours (working full-time hours over fewer days), a change to start and finish times, and the ability to work from home for some or all of the week. Your employer is not required to agree, but they must engage with the request in good faith.
Keeping in touch days, known as KIT days, are a separate provision that operates during your maternity leave itself. You are entitled to up to 10 KIT days during your leave period, which allow you to work without the day counting as ending your leave and without losing your SMP for that day. KIT days are paid at your normal contractual rate. Crucially, they are entirely voluntary: neither you nor your employer can require the other to agree to them. They must be arranged by mutual consent.
KIT days are well suited to attending a team update, completing a training course, doing a project handover, or simply spending a day in the office to get a feel for what has changed before your official return. Many mothers find that one or two KIT days in the weeks before returning significantly reduces the anxiety of the first day back.
What to discuss with your employer before you go back
A return-to-work conversation with your employer or HR team before your first day is worth arranging even if it is not formally required. Covering a few key areas in advance makes the first week considerably smoother.
Hours and location. If you are returning on the same hours as before, confirm this explicitly. If you have submitted or are planning to submit a flexible working request, establish the timeline for that process so you are not left uncertain about what your week will look like. If remote or hybrid working was not part of your original arrangement, this is the moment to raise it.
Your role. Check whether your responsibilities, reporting line, or team have changed. Organisational restructuring during a long absence is not uncommon. Understanding what you are coming back to, including any new systems, tools, or processes, reduces the disorientation of day one.
Workload and re-integration. It is reasonable to ask about a phased return to full workload rather than stepping straight back into a full diary. Not all employers will agree, but many are open to it, particularly for someone returning after a year away. A few weeks of lighter duties while you re-establish routines at home and at work is not an unreasonable request.
Breastfeeding. If you are still breastfeeding when you return, your employer has a legal duty to provide a suitable private space for expressing milk and facilities to store it. This does not have to be a dedicated room, but it cannot be a toilet cubicle. Raise this before you return so the arrangements are in place on your first day.
Holiday. Check how much annual leave you have accrued during your maternity leave and whether there is flexibility to carry it over if the leave year has turned during your absence.
Childcare options, costs and support
Securing childcare is often the most time-consuming part of planning a return to work, and the earlier you start, the more choice you will have. Popular nurseries and childminders have waiting lists that can stretch to a year or more in many areas.
The main options are as follows. A nursery is a group setting staffed by early years professionals and regulated by Ofsted in England (and equivalent bodies in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland). Nurseries typically take children from three months and offer full-day and part-time places. A childminder is a registered individual who cares for children in their own home, usually in smaller groups, and is also inspected by Ofsted. Many parents prefer the home environment and the relationship with a single consistent carer. A nanny cares for your child in your own home and is employed directly by you. Nannies are not required by law to be registered or inspected, though some hold voluntary registrations. Family care, where grandparents or other relatives provide childcare, is used by a significant proportion of families and can be arranged informally. It comes with no inspection regime but also typically no cost.
Costs vary significantly by region and type. In London, full-time nursery places for children under two commonly cost between 2,000 and 2,500 pounds per month. Outside London and for older children, costs are typically lower. Childminders are often modestly cheaper than nurseries. Nannies range from around 15 to 25 pounds per hour depending on location and experience, though sharing a nanny with another family (known as a nanny share) can reduce the effective cost considerably.
The tax-free childcare scheme is available to most working parents and provides a government top-up worth 20 percent of your childcare costs, up to a maximum of 2,000 pounds per child per year (or 4,000 pounds for a disabled child). You pay into an online account and the government adds the top-up, which you then use to pay your provider. To be eligible you and any partner must each earn at least the equivalent of 16 hours at the national living wage per week and no more than 100,000 pounds per year each.
Free childcare hours are available for eligible children in England: currently 15 hours per week for all three and four year olds, and 30 hours per week for eligible children in that age group. From September 2024, the government began rolling out funded hours for younger children, with eligible two year olds included first and expansion to children from nine months following in phases. Equivalent schemes exist in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Check the Childcare Choices website (childcarechoices.gov.uk) to understand what you are entitled to and when.
Universal Credit includes a childcare element that covers up to 85 percent of childcare costs for eligible families. If you are claiming Universal Credit, check whether this applies to your household, as it can make a significant difference to affordability.
The emotional reality: guilt, grief, and relief
The feelings that come with returning to work after maternity leave are wide-ranging and often contradictory. Many mothers describe guilt as the most persistent. Guilt about leaving the baby, guilt about wanting to go back, guilt about not wanting to go back, and sometimes guilt for not feeling guiltier. Whatever you are feeling, it is almost certainly normal, and it does not mean you are doing the wrong thing.
Grief is also common and often underacknowledged. You have spent an intense period with your baby, and even if the return to work is something you have been looking forward to, closing that chapter has a weight to it. Some mothers describe a quiet sadness in the first weeks back that does not have a clear cause, sitting alongside genuine satisfaction at being at work. Both things can be true.
Relief is equally legitimate. Returning to a professional identity, to adult conversation, to problems that have clear boundaries and can be solved in a day, is something many mothers find genuinely restorative. Feeling relief does not mean you love your baby any less or that you should have gone back sooner.
The anticipation is usually harder than the reality. Most mothers find that the day itself, and the weeks that follow, are more manageable than the anxiety in the run-up suggested they would be. Your baby will adjust. You will adjust. It takes time, and the early weeks are the hardest part of the curve.
If low mood, persistent anxiety, or a sense of not coping continues well beyond the first few weeks back, it is worth speaking to your GP. Postnatal depression can surface or re-surface at times of transition, and effective support is available. You can also self-refer to NHS talking therapies if you are 18 or over.
The first week back: practical advice
Preparation in the days before you return pays dividends. Lay out what your baby needs for their first few days of childcare. Walk through the morning routine at least once as a dry run so you know how long it actually takes. Confirm all the practical details with your childcare provider: drop-off and pick-up times, what to bring, how they handle the settling-in period, and how they will contact you during the day.
Tell your line manager and immediate colleagues approximately when you are back and that you expect to take a few days to get up to speed. Most reasonable workplaces will not expect you to be fully operational on day one after a year away. Set a modest plan for your first week: reading back emails, catching up with key people, understanding what has changed. Avoid front-loading your diary with meetings if you can.
Build in moments to check in with yourself during the day. It is normal to feel disoriented, to find concentration harder than you expected, and to have more emotion sitting close to the surface than usual. Being gentle with yourself is not a nice-to-have: it is what makes the first week survivable.
In those first weeks, routines outside work matter as much as those within it. Whatever helped you stay grounded during maternity leave, whether that was a regular walk, contact with a friend, time outside, or quiet time after the baby is in bed, try to protect it. The return to work is not just a work adjustment; it is a whole-life recalibration.
If your job has changed while you were away
Returning to find your role looks different from how you left it is more common than it should be. Organisations restructure, teams change, responsibilities shift, and not all employers communicate these changes clearly to someone on maternity leave.
If you are returning after OML and your employer has given your job to someone else, changed your title or grade, altered your hours without your agreement, or significantly reduced your responsibilities, this is likely to be unlawful. Your right to return to the same job on the same terms is unambiguous after OML.
After AML the position is slightly more nuanced, but the bar for a legitimate change is still high. A genuinely suitable alternative must be on equivalent terms. If you are offered a role with lower pay, lesser seniority, reduced hours against your wishes, or materially diminished responsibilities, that is unlikely to meet the standard.
If you believe your employer has not met its obligations, you have several options. Raising the issue informally with HR or your line manager is a sensible first step. If that does not resolve it, a formal grievance is the next route. ACAS (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) provides free advice and can help with early conciliation before any employment tribunal claim is made. A solicitor specialising in employment law can advise on the strength of your position. Many employment solicitors offer an initial free consultation.
If you decide not to go back
Deciding not to return to your employer after maternity leave is a legitimate choice, and you are not required to justify it. You are entitled to take your full maternity leave even if you know before the end of it that you will not be going back.
If you have received Occupational Maternity Pay above the statutory level, your employer may have included a clause requiring you to repay the enhanced element if you do not return for a specified period. Check your contract carefully. SMP itself is yours to keep regardless of whether you return: your employer cannot reclaim it.
If you are resigning, you need to give the notice period set out in your contract. Giving notice during maternity leave is permitted, though you do not have to go into work to work out the notice unless both parties agree. In many cases, employers are happy to treat the end of maternity leave as the resignation date.
If the decision not to return is a financial one rather than a preference, it is worth exploring all available options first. Childcare costs and the loss of free hours are a common driver of the calculation. Running the numbers carefully, including tax-free childcare and any free hours entitlement, sometimes changes the picture. A flexible working request for significantly reduced hours may also alter what is financially workable.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have the right to return to exactly the same job after maternity leave?
After Ordinary Maternity Leave (the first 26 weeks), you have the right to return to the same job on the same terms and conditions. After Additional Maternity Leave (weeks 27 to 52), the right is to return to the same job if reasonably practicable, or to a suitable alternative role on terms no less favourable. If your employer offers you a different role after OML, or one with worse terms after AML, this may constitute unlawful detriment.
What are keeping in touch days?
Keeping in touch days, known as KIT days, allow you to work up to 10 days during your maternity leave without it counting as ending your leave. They are paid at your normal rate. Both you and your employer must agree to them; neither can require the other to use KIT days. They are useful for attending training, handover meetings, or simply easing back into the workplace before your official return date.
Can I request flexible working when I return from maternity leave?
Yes. Since April 2024, all employees have the right to request flexible working from their first day of employment, not after 26 weeks as was previously the case. You can make one formal request every 12 months. Your employer must respond within two months and, if refusing, must cite one of the eight statutory business reasons. Being on or returning from maternity leave does not remove this right.
What help is available with childcare costs?
The tax-free childcare scheme allows eligible working parents to receive a government top-up of 20 percent on childcare costs, up to 2,000 pounds per child per year. Thirty hours of free childcare per week is available for eligible three and four year olds in England, and from September 2024 the expansion began rolling out for younger children. Universal Credit childcare support is available for those claiming it. Check your eligibility via the Childcare Choices website.
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