Your First Day Back After Maternity Leave: Why It Can Feel So Strange

You've already been up since 6am.

Probably earlier.

You've negotiated breakfast.
Cleaned yoghurt off the floor.
Packed bags. Forgotten something. Gone back.

You've already done a full day — and it's not even 9am.

And then you walk into work.

Everything looks the same.

Your desk. Your team. The conversations.

But you don't feel the same.

Returning to work after maternity leave can feel surprisingly unsettling, even when you've been looking forward to it.

And it's not necessarily about remembering how to do your job or getting used to a new routine.

Sometimes it's about realising how much you've changed.

Why returning to work after maternity leave can feel so different

There's this strange moment where you realise:

You don't quite know where you fit anymore.

No one says anything.
No one does anything wrong.

But suddenly it feels like everyone else is operating normally.

And you're… not.

You're more aware of yourself.

How you're coming across.
Whether you still sound sharp.
Whether you're keeping up.

And underneath it, a quieter thought:

Have I changed more than I realised?

What makes this harder is that it's rarely spoken about.

You might be the only one with young children in your team. Or it just isn't something anyone talks about.

So it can feel like you're the only one finding it hard. The only one feeling off. The only one who hasn't quite snapped back.

It's not necessarily a confidence or capability problem

Here's something important to recognise.

You haven't necessarily lost your ability to do your job.

But the context in which you're doing it has changed.

You're holding more.

More logistics.
More responsibility.
More emotional load.

You're thinking about nursery pickups while sitting in meetings. You're adjusting to new routines, possibly managing broken sleep, and trying to work out how everything fits together.

All while re-entering a working environment that might look almost exactly as it did before you left.

Of course that can feel disorienting.

This is the part of the transition that most people miss.

Not the practical return.

The psychological one.

Because becoming a mother can change how you see yourself, what matters to you and how you relate to your career.

And those changes don't disappear when you walk back through the office door.

Give yourself time to find your feet again

If you're finding the return harder than you expected, it might help to stop asking yourself why you're not back to normal yet.

Instead, try asking:

• What actually feels different? Is it my confidence, my priorities, my energy, or something else?

• What am I expecting of myself? Am I trying to operate exactly as I did before, even though my circumstances have changed?

• What would make this transition easier? Is there a conversation I need to have, an expectation I need to revisit, or some support I haven't asked for?

You don't need to have all the answers immediately.

But recognising what's changed can be a useful starting point.

Because returning to work isn't necessarily about getting back to who you were before.

It's about working out how you want to move forward from where you are now.

You're not behind.

You're in the middle of recalibrating.

And that takes time.

Finding support with your return to work

If returning to work after maternity leave has left you questioning your confidence, your identity or what you want from your career, you're not the only one.

I'm Laura, founder of The Parent Shift, and I support women navigating the changes that motherhood can bring to their working lives.

Through one-to-one coaching, we create space to explore what's changed, what matters to you now and how you want to move forward.

You can explore one-to-one coaching or start with my free guide if you'd prefer to explore things in your own time.