Returning to Work After Maternity Leave: When Your Professional Identity Shifts

Kirsten Forgione
Jan 2
4 min read

Returning to work after maternity leave is often talked about in practical terms — childcare arrangements, hours, flexibility, logistics.

But for many women, the most significant shift isn’t practical at all. It’s internal.

Returning to work after maternity leave can quietly reshape your professional identity, prompting questions about who you are now, how work fits into your life, and what you want from your career going forward. For many working mums, this period marks an unspoken career transition, even if their job title stays the same.

You don’t return as the same person who left.

Why Returning to Work After Maternity Leave Feels So Different

Motherhood changes your life in visible ways — and invisible ones. Your time, energy, and responsibilities are reorganised, often permanently. But what’s less acknowledged is how profoundly this can affect how you relate to work.

You may return:

Working fewer hours
In a modified role
With new constraints that didn’t exist before

Even if you enjoy your work, it may no longer sit in the same place in your life. And that can feel disorienting — especially in cultures that expect you to “pick up where you left off.”

For many women, this moment isn’t about juggling priorities. It’s about reconciling change — in identity, values, ambition, and capacity.

When Work Has Been Central to Who You Are

For some of us, work has always been deeply tied to identity.

It’s where we’ve felt competent, confident, and recognised. It’s how we’ve made sense of ourselves in the world. So when returning to work after maternity leave involves reduced hours, changed responsibilities, or less visibility, the impact can land deeply.

The loss isn’t just professional — it can feel personal.

For women who are wrapped up in their work, this change can feel like something has shifted at the core. Not because the work no longer matters, but because the relationship to it has changed — and no one really prepares you for that.

When Work Feels Like Relief

For other working mums, returning to work brings relief.

It can be a break from caregiving.A space to think, contribute, and be seen differently.An outlet that exists outside the emotional intensity of early parenthood.

Work can restore a sense of autonomy and competence — especially during a period where so much of life feels unpredictable.

And yet, even this relief can be layered with guilt:

For enjoying the separation
For wanting something beyond caregiving
For not feeling fulfilled by one role alone

Both experiences can coexist.

The Assumptions Working Mums Often Face

Returning to work also means returning to a workplace that may now see you differently.

Assumptions often arrive quietly:

That you’re less ambitious
That you won’t want stretch or leadership opportunities
That flexibility is a preference rather than a necessity

Sometimes these assumptions come from care. Sometimes from convenience. Often they’re simply embedded in workplace culture.

At the same time, many women return to environments that still expect the same output, availability, and emotional labour as before — without adapting to their changed circumstances.

This tension — between internal change and external expectation — is one of the most stressful parts of returning to work after maternity leave.

How Motherhood Shifts Professional Identity

Professional identity doesn’t disappear when you become a parent — it reorganises.

Your priorities may shift
Your tolerance for certain demands may change
Your definition of success may no longer centre on speed, status, or visibility

This isn’t about caring less. It’s about caring differently.

For many women, this stage prompts deeper questions:

Who am I professionally now?
What do I want my work to give me in this season of life?
What am I no longer willing to sacrifice?

These questions often sit beneath feelings of restlessness, burnout, or uncertainty — and they deserve attention, not dismissal.

Navigating Shifts in Your Professional Identity

One of the most stabilising things you can do is stop trying to return to who you were, and instead focus on integrating who you are now.

Some strategies to help:

Name what has changed without judging it. If ambition feels different, or sustainability matters more than progression, that’s information — not failure.
Separate identity from output.Reduced hours or altered roles don’t diminish your professional worth. Productivity and availability are not the same as value.
Allow identity to be multiple.You don’t have to choose between being committed to work or committed to care. You are allowed to be both — even if the balance shifts over time.
Expect grief as well as growth. You can love your child deeply and still miss the version of yourself who once moved more freely through work. Making space for that grief often reduces inner conflict.

Professional identity after maternity leave isn’t about reclaiming an old self. It’s about shaping a version of yourself that fits your life now.

Managing Career Transition After Maternity Leave

For many women, returning to work after maternity leave becomes a quiet career transition.

It might look like:

Questioning whether the role still fits
Redefining success
Wanting different boundaries, flexibility, or meaning

Not all career transitions involve changing careers. Some involve changing how you work, what you prioritise, or how much space work is allowed to take up.

Guiding principles:

See transition as a phase, not a verdict. You don’t need to solve your entire career future at once. Decisions that work for now are valid.
Question inherited definitions of success. Many workplaces still operate on outdated assumptions. You’re allowed to define success in ways that align with your values as a working mum.
Avoid major decisions from exhaustion. Seek support — someone who helps you reflect rather than react.

Career transition doesn’t mean stepping away from your professional self. Often, it means stepping closer to work that can genuinely coexist with the rest of your life.

Moving Forward, Not Back

Returning to work after maternity leave isn’t about proving you can still do everything you once did.

It’s about asking more honest questions:

What kind of working life is possible now?
What matters most in this season?
What am I no longer willing to sacrifice?

You’re not going back.

You’re moving forward — with a more complex identity, bigger responsibilities, and a deeper sense of what matters.

While that transition can be challenging, it can also mark the beginning of a more sustainable, intentional, and meaningful relationship with work.