53. How To Prepare For Maternity Leave and Budgeting For a Baby Tips

Are you planning for your maternity leave and unsure if you should take off time before the baby is born or wait to go into labor? Are you budgeting simultaneously to see how much time you financially are able to take off and looking for tips on making a baby budget?

Tune in to this episode where we’ll cover…

• How to determine when to start your maternity leave…
• Eligibility and length of maternity leave under FMLA and exceptions with small businesses…
• Featured support from a small business with paid maternity leave and parental accommodations…
• The lack of maternity leave support often offered or overlooked by pregnant moms, including myself…
• Practical financial tips to manage the expenses of childcare and baby essentials…
• … and much more!

Tune in to uncover top questions pregnant moms have when planning for maternity leave and budgeting for a new baby. Gain insights, hear personal stories, and discover strategies to navigate this transformative journey with confidence and preparedness. You’ve got this!

Resources Mentioned

Baby Registry Checklist – Mom and Baby Essentials

The Mom Project - Maternity Leave Checklist

Latched Mama – Breastfeeding apparel company

Cloth Diapering For Beginners Facebook Page

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👋 WHO AM I?

Welcome, friends! I am Beth, a certified nurse midwife, doula, and childbirth educator. My philosophy is rooted in autonomy, informed decision making, and positive mindset to help expecting parents plan for a beautiful, stress-free hospital birth. I am here to provide value to YOU through tips and practical advice, either to guide you through pregnancy or to help you prepare for childbirth, postpartum and beyond. There’s no fluff here - only info that adds to your positive experience and saves you stress and uncertainty.

Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome back to episode 53 of Your Birth Bestie podcast. Today we are going to be talking about planning for maternity leave and budgeting for bringing home a new baby. I would love for you to leave with feeling a little more informed and less stressed out about this new transition when it comes for planning on taking time off and still being able to manage things financially. This is a huge topic when growing your family and it is filled with a lot of unknowns, but I am excited to address some of your biggest questions and concerns and help you feel good and prepared for time off when your baby comes. 

Keep in mind, the right amount of maternity leave for you will depend on the type of job you have and how demanding it is, your physical and emotional postpartum recovery, and how much support you have, but let’s get into it!

Let’s start with understanding maternity leave. If you’ve been working in the U.S. for more than a year, AND the company you work for has at least 50 employees, you’re eligible for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The 12 weeks that FMLA does cover is for all of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum recovery, so if you decide to stop working before delivery for personal preference or a certain health condition, this time off before baby arrives will count towards your 12 weeks. 

For smaller companies, policies may all be a little bit different so it’s important to always learn more about your company’s maternity leave policy to best understand your rights and the options you have so you can make the best decision for you and your family. 

Just to give you an idea, only 12% of women have access to some form of paid maternity leave while 178 countries guarantee paid maternity leave; however, the United States is not one of them.

There are also companies that have different policies, many of which are very supportive of growing families, but of course many are not.

I want to highlight one company, Latched Mama, who particularly stands out. They posted that when you support Latched Mama, you’re not only supporting a small business, you’re also supporting moms in the workplace! This is such a strong message and I love this brand for that. They go on to say that their maternity leave policy is 100 days of paid time off and the option to bring your baby to work with you for the first year! 

What stands out to me is not the 100 days of paid time off, which is amazing of course, but it’s the continued support after that time. It’s not the expectation that you snap back into exactly the person and employee you were before you had your baby, because you are completely different in many ways. Your focus changes, your schedule changes, your emotions and outlook on certain things changes, and for me, to have the option to bring my baby to work with me and for my employer to be accommodating to that would be the best gift ever. Of course, I work in healthcare and that’s not possible, but if I didn’t and my employer was making accommodations to help me balance my work and life, that is incredible and so disappointing it’s not the norm.

Latched Mama says, “They are a team of moms determined to trailblaze change in American work culture and create a community that empowers others to do the same. We firmly believe that no mother should have to choose between her career and being close to her precious baby.” I couldn’t agree more. That first year can be so challenging as a mother, even if it’s not your first, there still are transitions happening, that having support like this from an employer is life-changing. So thank you Latched Mama for being one of these incredible businesses valuing moms in the workplace! 

So, once you become familiar with your employers maternity leave policies, you’ll have to consider how much time you plan on actually needing or wanting for maternity leave. You’ll want to ask yourself if you want to take time off before the baby is born, which again would cut into your time-off in most cases. Some expectant parents prefer to pick a start date for their leave, such as a week to a month before the baby is expected to be born, while others wait until the last minute for maternity leave so they can maximize time spent with their baby at home.

My experience was unique in that I was a student when I had both my girls. In 2020, I was in my last semester of nursing school to earn my masters and then in 2022 I had my second daughter 4 days after I graduated midwifery school. With my first, and this will probably be another podcast episode someday, I was originally told I could have 2 weeks off to recover and a new policy had changed where when I had my daughter, I had 6 hours of unexcused time off. It wasn’t even equivalent to a full clinical day of work. 

So I decided to stay the course, I had my baby and it was a traumatic experience if you’ve been around for a bit you know, otherwise my first birth story is episode 2 of this podcast, and after all of that I returned to in-person clinical 11 days postpartum, while still staying up to date with assignments and exams and everything else. 

This was by far the darkest point in my life and I truthfully don’t know how I got through it other than it was my only option, so I took it one day at a time. Not in an empowered, it’s all going to be okay kind of way, but in a, this is the worst thing I’ve ever done but hopefully I make it through kind of way… and who wants to start their motherhood journey like that. If I didn’t finish the last semester out, I would have had to postpone taking my NCLEX nursing certification exam an entire year, which I had not planned for and wouldn’t have been able to afford life honestly when I was expecting a nursing income that summer. So it was a huge stressor for sure. 

But anyways, the birth was traumatic, my nursing school situation was rough, postpartum was the worst part for me, and then covid lockdown happened when my daughter was 6 weeks old. None of these things would have been something I could have prepared for in the way I felt physically or emotionally, but I seriously learned so so much from this experience as a mom, a healthcare professional, a person, just overall that is my silver lining of this dark time.

Going through what I did and supporting so many other mom’s in their own journey too, my advice would be to work as long as you possibly can if that means you’ll get more time with your baby postpartum. Especially if you’re feeling good and you are physically able to work, because if you’re not and you have a physically demanding job, than it’s out of your control and you have to do what is best for that situation too, but I really do encourage moms to continue their normal routine and work up until labor. And I say that while still keeping in mind that those last couple weeks before you’re anticipating baby to be born, I think you should absolutely prioritize rest and nourishing your body and hanging out with friends or family to reduce stress and anxiety, promoting connection with others, and taking time for yourself. 

While figuring this all out and how to create a balance for yourself, I would say it is helpful to reach out to a friend that has gone through the same thing in your company ideally or a similar situation to see what worked for them and maybe what didn’t and then talk to your supervisor to make a plan that still makes you an employee that values their job and workplace while maximizing what is best for your situation and leads to the best transition for when you leave and when you return. One great way to do this is by reducing work hours until labor starts and then when you have your baby and are ready to go back to work, either starting up slowly for a few weeks to readjust or doing remote work temporarily.

I will link resources from The Mom Project in the show notes about maternity leave tips, but they have one guide for preparing for your return from maternity leave and it includes that you should: practice your routine, set your schedule, prioritize what is important, set realistic expectations, be transparent about what you need, and take it one day at a time. I think this is great advice for moms working outside the home to remind themselves of and plan ahead for when they will be leaving baby.

Okay, now let's talk about financial preparation which can scare a lot of people because of how much baby stuff they think they need or how expensive everything is, but I do have a few tips. I’d have to say the most significant expense for parents is probably childcare, estimated to be on average $1,000 per month for full-time care of an infant in a daycare center to $3,000 or more per month for a full-time nanny. 

We put our oldest in daycare from 1.5 to 2.5 years old while my husband and I were both finishing grad school and it was way more than I had ever considered before having kids, so if that’s a shock for you, you’re definitely not alone. The wait lists of daycare centers are also sometimes longer than it takes you to get pregnant, stay pregnant for 40+ weeks, and then 6 weeks postpartum. We were getting wait lists of 10-12 months in our area at the time, which was also COVID times and numbers I think were more limited, but regardless it was a huge stressor and something I wish I knew about sooner. You can also consider alternatives like family daycare, nanny shares, or flexible work arrangements to help manage childcare schedules and expenses too.

The next big saver for me personally, and it might be something you’re totally against, but I promise it’s worth it if you can keep an open mind about it! But that is cloth diapering. It’s way easier than I thought it would be and am so glad we made it past the initial few weeks of figuring out a wash cycle with our first baby, because that is honestly the hardest part. Once you figure out the best routine for your washer to get the diapers clean, it’s amazing! We only bought 14 Nora’s Nursery Diapers and had a few other BumGenius ones in rotation, but overall not many diapers. It cost about $200 for all the supplies and the diapers last a few years and for multiple kids too, so I think we’ve saved close to $4,000 in diapers over the last 4 years. The washing routine was also every other day and that worked for us, so if you can fit about 3 more loads of laundry into your week, you’ll be good! There is a Facebook page called Cloth Diapers For Beginners that I encourage you check out if you’re interested, there is tons of good info on how to get started.

Making a realistic baby registry guide is another thing I would recommend and for me, I like to error on the minimalistic side of things, not overbuying for what I might need, but knowing if I do need it, I probably can get it overnight shipped for free with Amazon. I created an Essentials Baby Registry Checklist you can find at bethconnors.com/checklist and download that to help you get an idea of some of the baby items I recommend and even pregnancy, labor, and postpartum essentials too. I made this list pretty comprehensive and hopefully you can use it as a good guide to budget effectively too, because I know it helped me a lot.

One more thing about baby registry things too, is keeping in mind your family planning wants. If you want a big family, maybe it’s worth it to invest in something more sturdy and durable, or more versatile with multi-purposes for a growing family that’s a bit more pricey, or buying gender neutral items in case you have more children that aren’t all the same sex. I was very cognizant of doing this and buying more gender neutral items with my first daughter because we knew we wanted to have a few kids and thought we’d play it safe even though it doesn’t really matter, but here we are pregnant with baby #3 that will be our third daughter, so I could have bought all the cute girly girl stuff for the nursery and clothes and have gotten three uses out of it, but I didn’t which is okay, just funny that’s how I planned and it hasn’t been necessary yet.

Other expenses that add up include medical costs, any additions to your pregnancy or birth support team like a doula, lactation consultant, pelvic floor physical therapist, chiropractor, anyone else you may be seeing for pregnancy concerns, and then also photos is a huge one too that can add up. Many moms invest in maternity photo shoots, maybe birth photographer, and newborn photo shoots, all of which I love so much for these moments to be captured, but also they aren’t accessible or affordable, or even of interest to all moms. But something to think about ahead of time and budget for if that’s important to you.

And then meal planning ahead of time can save money on wanting to buy premade meals when you’re recovering and not wanting to cook or sleep deprived and just needing to rest instead. So just another little tip to consider planning for in pregnancy for that postpartum transition and also if you are trying to stay within a tight budget.

The last thing I wanted to talk about today is maximizing your resources during your maternity leave, so kind of incorporating being on maternity leave in general and planning for that, but also the financial aspect too. Don’t hesitate to ask for help from your friends or family, or community members that you trust, this is something I didn’t do enough with either of my babies, but even having someone take care of the older kids or meal prep or do small chores that take off from your daily task list, is so helpful. You can also explore government programs available for pregnant women and new parents to save on food, medical costs, utility bills, internet services, to name a few I’m familiar with. 

It can be helpful to join Facebook groups that are local to you and getting advice from other moms who maybe are a few months ahead of you in this journey and can guide you on what’s been helpful for them. I am always learning of new things around me locally that are free community services or groups or ways to get connected to services that are looking to help families make ends meet. So just a reminder to be resourceful when you’re planning for your baby and trying to be smart with your money.

Thank you for tuning in to the podcast today! Don’t forget to checkout the show notes for those links to the Mom and Baby Essentials Checklist I created as a minimalistic baby regsitry guide and the maternity leave checklist from The Mom Project to help you plan step-by-step for your upcoming maternity leave. I hope this has been helpful for you to get started creating your maternity leave plan while also staying flexible to unexpected situations. The main priority at this time should be finding the best way to bond with your newborn and take care of yourself during those first several months postpartum, while creating the best work/life balance too. Thank you for being here and I will be back her next Tuesday for another episode. Bye everyone!