What Good Maternity Support Looks Like Before a Mother Goes on Leave
When organisations think about supporting working mothers, the conversation almost always starts in the same place.
The return to work.
And the return matters enormously. But by the time a mother is walking back through the door, several significant opportunities have already passed.
Because the experience of returning to work after maternity leave is shaped long before the return begins.
It is shaped by how a mother leaves.
This is the part of the maternity journey that most organisations overlook entirely - and it is where some of the most important work can be done. Not just for the individual mother, but for the organisation’s ability to retain experienced, capable talent at a critical moment in their careers.
A note before we go further: I work with many expectant mothers and parents-to-be on their own preparation for leave - how to leave with clarity, confidence and a plan for what comes next. But this article is specifically about what organisations can do. Because individual preparation only goes so far without the right organisational conditions around it.
The gap most organisations don’t see
Most organisations have a maternity policy. Fewer have a maternity experience.
The policy covers entitlements, timelines and legal obligations. All of which are necessary.
But a policy does not tell a mother that her career matters during this transition. It does not create space for her to think about what she needs. It does not signal that the organisation sees her as a whole person, not just a headcount temporarily stepping away.
That gap - between what the policy says and what the experience feels like - is where trust is built or quietly eroded.
And it starts before she even goes on leave.
What organisations typically get wrong
The pre-leave period in most organisations looks something like this.
A handover is arranged. Cover is organised. A leaving card is signed. And then she is gone.
The focus is almost entirely on business continuity - on making sure her absence is managed smoothly for the organisation. Which is understandable. But it means the person at the centre of the transition is often the least considered part of it.
What gets missed:
A genuine conversation about how she is feeling about the transition - not just professionally, but personally.
Clarity around keeping in touch days - not an assumption that she will want them, or that she won’t, but an actual conversation about what would feel right for her.
A discussion about what good contact during leave looks like - how often, in what format, and initiated by whom.
Early thinking about her return - not a detailed plan, but an acknowledgement that her return will be thought about and supported, not just assumed.
None of these are complicated. But in most organisations, none of them happen either.\
Keeping in touch days - done well
Keeping in touch days are one of the most underused and poorly handled parts of the maternity experience.
In theory, they offer a valuable bridge between leave and return. In practice, they are often either ignored entirely or handled without enough thought - leaving mothers unsure whether to use them, and organisations unsure what to offer.
One of the most common mistakes is simply asking a mother what she wants and leaving it entirely open. The intention is good - it respects her autonomy and avoids assumption. But a mother in the final weeks of pregnancy, or in the early months of new parenthood, often does not have the headspace to research her options, think through the implications, and come back with a clear answer.
What works better is presenting structured options.
This might look like offering a few different models:
A light touch option - a single check-in call or attendance at one team meeting per month, for mothers who want to stay loosely connected without any pressure.
A more connected option - a project update, a development conversation, or attendance at a team away day, for mothers who want to stay more actively involved in their professional world.
A fuller option - more regular contact or involvement in specific pieces of work, for mothers who actively want this level of connection during their leave.
Each option is clearly described, with no pressure attached to any of them. The key is that the organisation has done the thinking in advance. The mother is not expected to design her own keeping in touch experience from scratch. She is invited to choose what feels right for her - and supported whichever way she decides.
It is also worth being explicit about what keeping in touch days are not. They are not an opportunity to manage workload remotely. They are not a check on whether she is still committed. They are a genuinely optional bridge, offered with care, designed around her needs rather than the organisation’s.
The role of coaching before and during leave
There is something else that makes an enormous difference at this stage - and it sits alongside what the organisation provides rather than replacing it.
Coaching.
Many of the mothers I work with come to coaching in the weeks before they go on leave carrying a mix of emotions they have not yet had space to untangle. Excitement. Anxiety. Uncertainty about their identity at work. Questions about what they want their career to look like on the other side. Concerns about how to have honest conversations with their manager about boundaries, contact and return plans.
Coaching provides the space to work through all of that - before the conversations with the organisation happen.
And that matters. Because a mother who has had the space to get genuinely clear on what she wants - on her boundaries, her needs, her vision for her return - will have a very different conversation with her manager than one who is navigating it all in real time, without support.
She will be able to say clearly what kind of contact she wants during leave. She will know whether keeping in touch days feel right for her, and if so, what she wants them to involve. She will leave with a sense of intention rather than simply relief that it is over.
Coaching during leave can also be built into the keeping in touch framework itself. Rather than a keeping in touch day being purely about work updates, an organisation can offer coaching as part of the support available during leave. This gives mothers a trusted, confidential space to process their experience, prepare for their return, and stay connected to their professional identity - on their own terms, at their own pace.
The mothers who arrive back at work having had that kind of support do not just feel better.
They are clearer, more confident, and far better equipped to have the strategic conversations that will shape their experience of returning.
What good actually looks like
Organisations that handle the pre-leave period well share a few things in common.
They treat it as a transition, not just an absence. They recognise that a mother going on leave is undergoing one of the most significant personal and professional changes of her life - and they create space for that, rather than focusing solely on the operational handover.
They have the conversation early. Not in the final week before leave begins, squeezed in between handovers. But with enough time for it to be meaningful. A dedicated conversation - or series of conversations - about what the mother needs, what she wants, and what the organisation can offer.
They present options rather than open questions. Particularly around keeping in touch days, they do the thinking in advance so that the mother is choosing from a clear menu of support rather than being expected to design it herself.
They bring in specialist support. Whether that is coaching offered as part of the pre-leave period, as a keeping in touch day option, or as a structured return-to-work programme, the organisations that get this right understand that HR and line managers cannot do this alone. Specialist support exists for a reason.
They reduce the load towards the end. The final weeks of pregnancy are physically and emotionally demanding. Organisations that actively reduce pressure rather than simply maintaining it until the last day send a powerful signal about how they value their people.
And they follow through. A conversation about support that leads to nothing is worse than no conversation at all. What is discussed before leave needs to be remembered and acted on when the time comes.
Why this matters beyond the individual
Supporting a mother well before she goes on leave is not just the right thing to do for her.
It is the right thing to do for the organisation.
The mothers who leave feeling genuinely supported are significantly more likely to return with confidence and commitment. The ones who leave feeling like a logistical problem to be managed are the ones who spend their leave quietly reconsidering whether they want to come back at all.
Retention does not begin at the point of return.
It begins here.
In the conversations that happen - or don’t happen - in the weeks before a mother walks out of the door.
Organisations that get this right are not doing anything extraordinary
They are simply paying attention at a moment that matters.
At ParentWorks, I work with organisations to design and deliver coaching support across the full maternity journey - before leave, during leave, and through the return to work. If you would like to explore what that could look like for your organisation, you can find out more by booking a discovery call.