I was talking to someone about this the other day – the things I did before I went on mat leave that made my life a little easier. And I thought it might be useful for any pregnant gals out there about to go on maternity leave. Or even for those of you trying or thinking of trying for a baby.
Because having a baby actually requires a lot of organisation and admin to make it work. It’s not something people tend to talk about. It’s all “CONGRATULATIONS!” and “When are you due?!” and “Is it a boy or a girl?!”, without any of the practical conversations like “Will you be able to afford your rent on statutory maternity pay?”.
It’s not all money and doom and gloom though, there are a few things thrown in for fun to make the most of life pre-baby. But here’s a little list I put together of things you should do BEFORE you go off on your maternity leave.
11 Things To Do BEFORE You Go On Maternity Leave
Create A Savings Plan For Your Pregnancy
Early pregnancy comes with a lot of anxiety and worry, as well as some pretty gnarly symptoms. So thinking about your finances might not be at the top of your to do list. But seriously, I can’t recommend enough giving your financial situation a good look at, as soon as possible.
Cut right back on luxuries (at least you will have already given up your alcohol spend) and think about how much you can save each month towards your maternity leave. Take into account the things you need to buy, like a cot and clothes for the baby, as well as a few maternity bits for you.
As much as you can save during this time is really going to help you out once you’re on the ol’ statutory maternity pay (SMP).
Set A Budget For Your Maternity Leave
Take a look at how much maternity pay you’re entitled to at your company, and set out a month-by-month budget for your mat leave. Ask your HR department for a payment schedule if you can, as it really helps you work things out.
Maternity pay can vary hugely between companies. The minimum we can be offered in the UK is 6 weeks of 90% of your wages, then SMP for the remainder of the 9 months after you start your maternity leave (which at time of writing is about £140 a week). But you might be one of the lucky ones that gets full pay for 6 months (aka the dream).
Mine was somewhere in between but I found this exercise crucial in figuring out how we were going to afford our lives this year.
Remember to take into account the additional spend you’ll have on baby supplies and probably a reduced spend on things relating to work like lunches out or coffees every morning (but obviously you should have a few of these things to feel sane and get out the house once you have the baby!)
Oh and definitely remember to incorporate Child Benefit if you’re eligible. It’s not a lot but it definitely helps. Plus any savings you’ve managed to cobble together during pregnancy.
This exercise will help you figure out how much maternity leave you can actually afford. You might want the full year but chances are you might only be able to afford a few months. (I took 7 months in total FYI).
Stock Up On Your Beauty Products
It’s not something you think about beforehand, but running out of your favourite moisturiser, mascara and night cream all in the same month can be a real drag when you’re low on funds during your maternity leave. So to avoid this happening, I massively recommend buying extras of your favourite products whilst you’re still on full pay. It’s a gamechanger.
Stock Up On Baby Stuff
I’ve seen a lot of people recommend bulk buying baby items whilst you’re still on full pay, but I think it’s only relevant for certain items. I got given a lot of size 1 newborn nappies at my baby shower and I bought some myself, but my daughter was in size 2 before I had used them all. So don’t go crazy on the nappies, it’s worth getting a couple in each size if you want. I would also buy a few different baby wipe brands so you can figure out which you like.
But it’s definitely worth going to the baby section at your weekly shop and buying something little each week. That way it’s not a huge expense.
Use Birthdays and Christmases Strategically
Don’t leave it to chance, if there are things you need, either now or it’s something you think you’ll need when you’re off, ask for it for Christmas or your birthday. Obviously this depends on where in the year your pregnancy sits, but it can be useful when you’re trying to tighten the purse strings. It’s also an opportunity to get those beauty prodcts I was on about!
Go To The Cinema
Ok this is a nice one. One thing I realised I wasn’t really able to do after I had a baby was go to the cinema. You can’t exactly take a baby in there and I like to reserve babysitting slots to things I really need to go to, like friends’ birthdays and weddings.
So make the most of it and have a date night at the cinema whilst you’re pregnant! It’s also pretty handy as it’s an alcohol-free night so you feel like you can still participate.
Get Amazon Prime
Once you have a baby, no matter how much planning you’ve done, you will inevitably need to buy more gadgets and gizmos from Amazon. Either because the baby isn’t sleeping and someone online recommended a product that helps (you’ll pay anything for some shut-eye at this point) or you’ve run out of something you didn’t anticipate (always nappy bin liners for me). These things are usually ordered in the wee hours of the morning and Amazon Prime is an absolute godsend for same-day or next-day delivery.
Plus you get more TV shows to binge in the day. Winner.
Decide On Your Coming-Back-To-Work Date
You don’t know how you’re going to feel after having a baby so it’s hard to figure out how much maternity leave you’re going to want. But hopefully the budget exercise above will help you figure out how much you can afford to take off. I think it’s a good idea to work this out before going on your maternity leave to manage expectations.
Of course it’s flexible, if you change your mind, you’re entitled to the full year if you want it. But I didn’t want my work to forget me whilst I was gone. So I figured out the date I was coming back and put it in my team’s calendar so they knew when I was coming back!
Start Your Work Handover Early
You can’t rely on your due date, babies arrive early all the time. So I made sure I did my handover a few months early. If you don’t have someone to handover to, write it all down in documents that can be accessed by your team.
Even if you baby does come right on time, the third trimester is a bit of a slog and you might not really care that much about doing a good handover in the last month. But trust me, you’ll be more relaxed on maternity leave if you know that everything is being taken care of at work. And I’m sure your work will appreciate you leaving them in a good place.
Buy Yourself A Present
Ok this kind of contradicts the whole, save-as-much-money-as-possible thing. But once the baby arrives, everything is about them. You’ll happily blow £50 in Next on new baby clothes but will feel incredibly guilty if you spend that amount on yourself.
So before you go off on your maternity leave, and still have full pay, buy yourself something you want. You get bonus points if it’s something that you’ll use on mat leave like a new coat or a new pair of trainers. (Top tip: don’t buy your previous clothes size though, it’s likely you won’t be that size for a while!)
Create A “To Watch” List on Netflix
Although maternity leave is crazy and hard work and not-at-all as relaxing as you think it might be, there are definitely periods where you’re stuck under a sleeping baby and stick on the TV to get you through. You can’t always think straight about what you want to watch from the sheer exhaustion (I ended up rewatching a lot of stuff because I couldn’t figure out what to watch). So create a little watch list ready for those times.
Let me know if there’s anything else you recommend doing before going on mat leave, I’m keen to hear your top tips!
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