Mamas who took a maternity leave…How did you do it? Did you wait until you went into labor or did you schedule a hard date to start your leave? What did you do before you left to prepare your team for your leave? Trying to finish out the last few weeks before my leave starts and I’m a planner and a worrier (if you couldn’t tell 😂)

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I ended up getting induced so I had a hard date. I've heard other people take a week before their due date or so to coast just in case. Even though I got induced I started looping in backup like a month ahead of time just in case. That way, someone can at least pick up where you left off if needed.

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I wrote very detailed memos with date timelines for various projects and tasks. I even wrote email drafts that my colleagues and assistants could just copy and paste. I worked w our HR dept in advance to plan out and ensure my full 12 weeks was fully paid and set my leave and return dates. My last day was two days before my due date. My baby is now three months old :) Time FLIES. Congrats and good luck!

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I had a hard date and went beyond it by 2 days to finish something up. Scheduled some time off but didn’t get to enjoy it because babe came early 😩 I wrote detailed transfer memos and started handing things off as soon as I could, so I could still be around to answer questions

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Took off starting my due date but told my office I wouldn’t do any appearances starting the month before my due date. The month before my due date I largely just wrapped things up and helped transition files. I was 100% work from home so I didn’t feel the need to take off any time before I delivered

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I wrote an out of office memo that I shared a month out and then continued to update until I took leave. I took off a week before my scheduled C-section and only had to finish out the things I had planned to.

I don’t have much to add to previous comments. But whatever you do to prepare, start at least a couple weeks in advance. Both my boys were 1.5 weeks early, so I learned the hard way timing can be unpredictable even for your first. 😬

I only got 12 weeks so I wanted it all post baby. I was induced with one and natural labor with the other and worked up until the day they were born. I’m probably in the minority here but I just told the partner I worked with to contact me with questions while I was on leave because it was easier than doing a transfer memo. I usually had like 30 active files at a time and I didn’t want to bother with that. He didn’t bother me at all while I was out really but I had a ton to do when I got back bc nobody did anything on any of my files hah. That wouldn’t have changed if I did a memo though so whatever.

My first arrived almost a month early! While I was planning to work until she arrived, I thought I had more time to prepare. Great lesson in parenting - you are no longer in control 🤪

I had to take some calls and send some emails for the first week or so to get things straightened out. With my second, I was doing a clerkship, so there was not a lot of prep that needed to happened. I scheduled my leave to start one week before my due date and she arrived a week late! See lesson above 🤪 (no regrets though, meant more time to get my head and heart ready for number 2).

I was most prepared for my third. Memo detailing case status, where stuff was saved, who to bill, etc. was prepared and circulated to relevant folks. I scheduled my leave for one week before my due date and he arrived two day early. It was a lovely week off before the wonderful craziness of three.

Good luck and congratulations!!!

Worked until my water broke. In hindsight, I should have taken a week or two off prior to my delivery date. I was so exhausted and stressed that I feel it impacted my delivery.
I drafted a memo of ongoing assignments and status updates to my staff and had a meeting with my boss before I took leave. When I got back my team had done a great job of picking up where I left off.
Enjoy your maternity leave. The job can wait. You’ll never get that time back

Make sure you have a date you have confirmed with your managing partner that is the date you will no longer be given work on new cases so you can spend time wrapping up as much as you can on current cases.

I did not stand firm on this and wished I had. We’re not super human and we’re even less super human when we are growing new life. It’s exhausting.

If I’m spending time on new cases that we all know will still be going on after I am on leave then I will have to spend time transitioning those out on top of the other cases I already have to transition out.

I worked the day I went into labor. If possible, work as long as you can because the disability/FMLA leave is never long enough with your baby!

Worked until I went into labor. I’m in-house, so different prep than if I was in a firm. I maintained a spread sheet of in-flight matters, links to important files/frequently used docs, and contacts page to outside counsel, brokers, etc… I also set a training cadence with an associate to hand off and explain large matters.

I worked until I went into labor--which happened on the evening of weekdays after work. I prepared a list of open matters/cases and next steps for whomever was picking up the matter/project and relevant documents.

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