How long to take for maternity leave
Maternity leave, it comes with different expectations, implications, considerations and options for all.
Everyone in Ireland is entitled to 26 weeks regardless of how long you have been with your employer. If you have enough social insurance (PRSI) contributions, you are entitled to Maternity Benefit (including for the self-employed). You also have the right to take up to 16 weeks additional maternity leave, but it is not covered by Maternity Benefit. You can find full details on Maternity Leave entitlements on the Citizen’s Information site here.
During your pregnancy you will most likely be considering questions like: How long do I want to take for maternity leave? How long can we afford for me to take off? What are the options for creche and childcare when I go back to work? Will I do back to work or does it make sense for me to stay home? as the answers to these questions will all impact your final decision.
For me on my first child I took the 26 weeks and then had the option to take a further 16 weeks unpaid. I chose to take the 26 weeks paid and then take a further 8 weeks unpaid which equated to just about 8 months total leave.
I enjoyed being off, but I did find the lack of mental stimulation hard. After coming from a very fast paced working environment I think it took me a while to wind down and also I was naive as to how precious the baby milestones were, everything was so new and we were only discovering as we went. I was so caught up in the day to day I didn’t have the birds eye view that the first year really is so exciting with the baby development and it goes so fast.
Pre-maternity leave I knew I wanted to take some time off but then get back to work. I thought I could do it all, in retrospect for my situation, I think another month or two would have made things easier. I failed to take into account that the baby might wake up at night and that balancing the pace of work and coming home to an 8 month old in the evening and being woken in the middle of the night was hard work. Also, during the day, I missed my child in work and was exhausted constantly. I remember the act of even chatting to people and trying to be upbeat was tough, when all I wanted to do was sit alone, do my work and then go home to start my second shift of the day. I was also a bit isolated as no one else on my immediate team had kids so I felt like I was doing both jobs half-well.
Also, when I think back on it, I feel like Matthew was so young going into the creche, he absolutely loves it now and they were so good to him in the baby room, caring for him until he was 1 year old. If I had my time again I would have taken longer than the 8 months, yes, it can be mundane and boring being on maternity leave at times but it would have been far easier for me than being back at work, juggling a baby under 1 and settling back into work. But, that’s not to say it wouldn’t work for someone else, I think it really depends on your situation, your job, your partner’s job, how much sleep you are getting, your childcare support and so many other factors personal to you.
The second time around I was adamant that I wanted to take as long as possible and enjoy the time off. It was much busier with a toddler in tow as well as the baby. There always seemed to be something to organise, washing, cleaning, dinner to make, baby clothes to sort ( as they seem to change sizes every few weeks at that stage!). Also, the rules had changed in our creche and they were no longer accepting babies under 1 years old so it meant that we had no option but for me to stay off.
In the end, I decided to take the 26 weeks and then 14 weeks unpaid, that with the addition of holidays brought me up to 11 months and then my husband arranged to take 4 weeks parental leave to bridge the gap to one year. My husband being off made my transition back to work much easier as he took over and was on hand to take the reins at home with housework and to settle Eleanor into creche. Also, it meant less of a wrench for her to go from spending all day with me to being in the creche, she could spend more time with her dad and then gradually get used to the creche.
Also things had changed in the year I was off, working from home was now the norm in the workplace so it wouldn’t be so difficult juggling the commute, creche drop off and pick up and dinner times as this is where we really struggled the last time. With both of us working in town, it felt like we were constantly up against the clock trying to make it home for dinner and get the kids into creche on time so we could still absorb the commute and do a decent day’s work! Having the option to work from home gave us back that 1 hour commute each way. Being at home meant I could make a dinner on my lunch or put on a wash during the day which really took the pressure off.
Financially, I had to plan for the additional time off and did a budget for the 4 months with no pay. Covid restrictions and lockdown did help, in that for 6 months we spent very little on outlay except for giant grocery bills and postage fees for sending presents to others. We also saved on creche fees while the creches were closed. I think we would have been watching the pennies a lot more had we not inadvertently managed to save a good bit thanks to the covid lockdowns … every cloud and all that!
If I was having another child, how long would I take off? To be honest, I am still not sure … It would really depend again on all the factors above ( my job, my partner’s job, how much sleep I was getting, childcare support) I think If I could financially afford it, I think I would take as close to one year as possible, it worked well for us, but again, it is such a unique decision to everyone based on your own personal circumstances.
