Going back to work after a baby is rarely about the day you walk into the office. It starts months earlier, in decisions about who holds the baby while you shower, when the nanny search begins, and how you'll answer the question every returning mother eventually gets asked: "So, are you going back?"
This read draws from a conversation on The Parent Code podcast episode, titled Motherhood & Career: Getting Back to Work After Maternity, between Akriti Gupta, Loopie's founder, and Niharika Joshi, founder of Cumin Co., who ran her own return-to-work initiative before starting her company. Read on for the support system to build before you return, what real flexibility looks like, and why "mom brain" doesn't hold up to the science.
What to Keep in Mind Before You Plan Your Return
The instinct is to treat going back to work as a willpower problem. It isn't. Most women who step away from paid work after having a baby aren't doing it because their ambition faded. They're doing it because the systems around them didn't work.
Ashoka University's Genpact Centre for Women's Leadership, in a report on India's returning mothers, found that a large majority of working Indian women leave their jobs after childbirth, and nearly half of those who do return end up dropping out again within a few months. That second exit is the more telling number. It usually means the return wasn't set up to succeed the first time either.
Akriti has seen this up close too, having started Loopie without taking a maternity break herself, and Niharika built her entire return-to-work initiative around one realization: the resistance was never about drive. A few patterns kept showing up in the women she worked with:
The support gap
Many women who move cities for marriage or work lose easy access to family help right when they need it most.
Childcare hesitation
Daycare and nanny care still carry stigma in parts of India, pushing families toward all-or-nothing caregiving instead of shared arrangements.
The escalation trap
A baby's needs don't shrink as they grow; they just change shape. A short pause becomes a longer one because there's never a "lighter" moment to restart.
None of this puts the decision out of your hands. It just means the planning has to start earlier than most people expect.
Building a Support System Before the Baby Arrives
Niharika's own return to work didn't happen by accident, and one thing she's clear about is that support has to be built, ideally before you need it desperately. A few starting points from her experience:
Get a realistic picture early
Even doctors sometimes have to explicitly tell new parents that early childcare takes far more time than expected, because nobody else will.
Have a rough return timeline, even a loose one
You don't need a fixed date. Just having a direction- six months, a year, "after she starts walking," helps you plan backward instead of drifting.
Get comfortable with outsourcing before you're overwhelmed
A nanny, a family member, or a trusted neighbourhood network all count. Waiting until you're stretched thin makes the decision harder, not easier.
Choose consistency over the "perfect" fit
The same caregiver over time builds trust that a rotating cast of helpers never quite manages.
There's a shift worth making early too: not assuming certain caregiving tasks are automatically the mother's job. Night feeds can be split with pumped milk. Diaper changes, baths, and soothing a crying baby at 3 a.m. aren't gendered skills, just skills.
Akriti mentioned this directly on the podcast, describing how she and her husband split night feeds from the start rather than falling into the usual pattern by default.
Why Flexible Work Is a Business Decision, Not a Favour
This is where the conversation shifts from parenting advice to something any manager should sit with too. Niharika's work with companies came down to three levers, and they map closely to what serious Indian employers are already doing.
The business case is simple, even if it's rarely said out loud. Companies without this kind of flexibility don't lose women only at the maternity-leave stage.
They lose them earlier, when a woman realises the role won't bend and steps back before she's even asked to choose, often during the years she's doing her sharpest work.
A parental leave policy sitting unused in an HR handbook isn't the same as a workplace that actually makes room for someone coming back.
The Practical Roadmap Back to Work
If you're the one planning the return rather than designing the policy, here's the sequence Niharika found actually worked for the women she supported.
Decide what you actually want before you apply anywhere
Full-time or fewer hours, remote or in-office. Applying without this clarity usually means targeting the wrong kind of role and feeling let down by a perfectly reasonable job that was never right for you.
Refresh the basics
An outdated resume is one of the most common, and most fixable, blockers, especially in fast-moving fields like tech.
Know that shorter gaps are viewed differently
Employers generally treat a break of under a year to about eighteen months differently from a longer one, mostly because the perceived skill gap feels smaller. Worth knowing while you're weighing your own timeline.
Consider whether you actually want the same role back
Many women use the break to realise they want to pivot entirely. Small freelance or project-based gigs are a low-risk way to test a new direction before committing.
Rebuild confidence deliberately
It tends to lag behind capability after a break, and structured interview prep, along with small early wins, matters more here than people expect.
Own the gap instead of hiding it
Trying to smooth over a career break in interviews tends to backfire. Naming it plainly and briefly usually earns more trust than papering over it.
What Does "Mom Brain" Actually Mean?
Very little, according to science. The largest study on the subject, from Monash University's Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, compared new mothers and fathers with non-parents on a broad range of cognitive tests and found no objective decline, even up to two years after birth.
The skill was never gone. The confidence to use it took a hit, which is a different problem, and a far more solvable one.
Niharika brought this up on the podcast too, recalling how often women she worked with used the phrase right before underselling themselves in an interview. It’s a word worth retiring from our own vocabulary as well.
Equal Parenting From Day One
One point Niharika returned to more than once in the conversation: fathers who get less hands-on time in the early months often report feeling less bonded with their child years later, and the cause usually traces back to being gently sidelined early on, not any inherent difference in bonding capacity.
The fix is straightforward, if not always easy to enforce. Both parents can handle feeds, baths, and the unglamorous 2 a.m. shifts from the start, rather than the father "stepping up" only once the mother returns to work.
Waiting a year and then expecting instant fluency isn't fair to either parent, and it runs both ways: if one partner hasn't had the room to build these skills, some catching up is reasonable, not a reason for resentment.
FAQs: Parents’ Most Asked Questions on Maternity Leave
Is 26 weeks of maternity leave enough to plan a return?
Legally, it's a solid starting point, but the planning itself needs to begin well before leave ends. Most families who feel ready by week 26 started thinking about support systems and timelines months earlier.
What if my career break is longer than two years?
It's a bigger hurdle but not an unusual one. Focus on showing what you did during the gap, upskilling, freelance work, staying current with your field- rather than trying to hide the length of it.
Are there real return-to-work programmes in India?
Yes. Tata's Second Careers, Wipro's Begin Again, Infosys's Restart With Infosys, and Goldman Sachs's Returnship are among the established ones, built around structured re-entry rather than a straight rehire.
How do I build a support system without family nearby?
Start with one reliable person, a nanny, a trusted neighbour, or another parent in a similar situation, rather than waiting for a complete network. Consistency with one person often matters more than the size of the system.
To a Bright Career & Motherhood Journey!
Going back to work after having a baby was never just about logistics. It's about identity, confidence, and the decision to hold onto both a career and full presence as a parent, without treating one as the price for the other. Akriti closed the podcast conversation on nearly this exact note, and it's a fitting place to leave things here too.
