Struggling while both being postpartum and while educating young minds can be a very difficult task.
An average 87% of women return to their education jobs after being on maternity leave. Within that number, 40% end up leaving the workplace within four years of being postpartum. While dealing with the stress of being a new mother, the stress of being an educator and now “that one teacher who just had a baby,” many teacher-turned-mothers struggle to find a balance, especially if they have an aesthetic to uphold as a popular teacher who now has to divide their time between their high school babies and their new infant baby.
This was the case for health and safety teacher Emily Meyer. After having her daughter in the fall of last year, Meyer felt conflicted to return to work as soon as possible, but her maternity leave went by too quickly, and she wishes she could have stayed home longer.
“The first week back was rough, but since then, it has gotten better,” Meyer said. “It makes me excited for the work day to be done so I can go and see my little squish.”
The separation between the teacher and the baby often means. An emotional connection is being disconnected. This, on top of the general and sometimes scary health risks of having a baby, leads many women to question if they would ever want to have another kid.
“We had talked previously about having another child, but my experience was not pleasant,” Meyer said. “I ended up hemorrhaging and needing an emergency C-section while completely anesthetized, which was pretty scary. So, currently, we are planning on Vivienne being our only child.”
In Meyer’s ideal world, maternity leave should involve six months of paid leave time for the mother and three months for their co-parent, but that wasn’t her experience. According to the Warren Township website, maternity leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act is unpaid for 12 weeks.
“The way the district has their parental leave is they match up to 10 [paid] days if you have 10 days in your leave bank,” Meyer said. “I also had to be very mindful when it came to taking sick days last school year, in preparation of having a baby this school year. I was gone for a total of 39 school days, and 36 were paid due to making sure I didn't take time off or call in sick.”
Having to pre-plan sick days can cause a lot of stress on a pregnant woman on top of the stress that the pregnancy already brings.
“I was very lucky to have had a pretty easy pregnancy, but some aren't so lucky,” Meyer said. “If they use their sick time or personal days while they're pregnant, when the baby comes, their time off is unpaid, which I think is ridiculous.”
Luckily for Meyer, a great support system and students who love her helped her through the tough postpartum time.
“I had some students email me the day of my induction, wishing me luck and hoping for the best or checking in for an update if my baby had been born,” she said. "There were a few days that I came into the building while on leave and was getting bombarded with hugs, and [hearing], 'Hi, Mrs. Meyer! When are you coming back?' did make me feel special.”
Many other teachers have had a child while educating young minds too.
“For several months postpartum, I felt like my brain was only focused on my daughter,” freshman math teacher Erin Kacey said. “I completely trusted her caregiver at daycare, but I couldn't help thinking about her all day, so I don't think I was the best teacher during those early months.”
Being separated from a child for hours at a time, missing those special moments and milestones, takes an effect on mothers.
“Even if I had felt 100% physically, being separated from my daughter that early was so tough,” Kacey said. “Puppies aren't allowed to be separated from their mothers until they are eight weeks old, but our human babies are going to daycare when they are six weeks old?”
When it comes to educating young minds, teachers build a connection with their students. They teach them what they need to know in the long run and help them outside of the classroom. But when having a baby, teachers leave that connection with the students to build a new connection with their child, and they try to build it back when they return. Most of them come back to school and realize that those high school babies they love care about their wellbeing and health – and the newest addition to their little family.
“I think she is a really kind and supportive teacher,” sophomore Corey Snorten said about Meyer.