Returning to Work After Maternity Leave: Why You Might Start Questioning Everything

Why confidence can dip after having a baby — and what that shift might really be telling you

Feeling unsure after returning to work? This is more common than you think

Returning to work after maternity leave can trigger a surprising loss of confidence — not because your ability has changed, but because your identity has.

It’s something I see often in the women I work with.

And it’s something I experienced myself.

My experience of going back to work after having a baby

I remember my first few weeks back after having both my daughters feeling unexpectedly difficult.

On the surface, I was ready.

Even excited to return.

But underneath, there was a constant background noise:

Are they ok at nursery?

Am I doing the right thing?

And a thought that kept coming back:

If I’m spending time away from them, it needs to feel worth it.

The confidence wobble no one really talks about

Many women returning to work after having a baby find themselves quietly questioning things they never doubted before:

Am I still as good at my job as I used to be?

Do people still take me seriously?

Can I balance this career and be present at home?

These aren’t small questions.

And they can feel unsettling when they appear out of nowhere.

For me, there was a definite wobble in confidence.

Sleep deprivation played a part, of course.

But it went deeper than that.

I found myself wondering if I could still show up fully for my clients.

Whether I could hold everything together in the same way I had before.

Why returning to work after maternity leave can feel so different

Because something has changed — even if your job hasn’t.

Becoming a parent is a profound identity shift.

You might return to the same role, with the same responsibilities…

but you’re not the same person who left.

Your priorities, energy and sense of what matters have all shifted.

From the outside, it can look like a “return to normal”.

But internally, there’s often a quiet recalibration happening.

When your old working life no longer fits

I was very aware that my experience could have been harder.

At the time, I was working flexibly and remotely.

And I knew that if I’d still been commuting into London every day in my old corporate role, it would have felt unsustainable.

Even with that flexibility, something had shifted.

What I was willing to give.

What felt worth the trade-off.

What kind of life I actually wanted.

This is the part many people don’t expect.

You haven’t lost your confidence — but it might feel like you have

Looking back, I can see I wasn’t as patient with myself as I could have been.

I wanted to go straight back to how things were before.

But that version of me didn’t exist anymore.

And that wasn’t a problem — it just needed time.

I also wish I’d had more support in that moment.

Someone to reflect back that I hadn’t “lost” anything.

Because in reality, I’d gained so much through motherhood:

• resilience

• adaptability

• emotional awareness

All of which absolutely translated into my work — even if I couldn’t see it yet.

When a loss of confidence is actually something deeper

For some women, this dip in confidence settles with time.

With the right support and space to think, it rebuilds — often stronger than before.

But for others, the feeling lingers.

Not because they’re less capable.

But because something deeper is asking to be looked at.

This is often when thoughts of a career change begin to surface.

Not always in a dramatic way.

Sometimes just as a quiet, persistent feeling:

I don’t think I want to go back to how things were.

A gentle question to ask yourself

If you’re in this space, it doesn’t mean you need to rush into a big decision.

But it might be worth exploring what’s underneath the doubt.

Because very often, it’s not just a confidence issue.

It’s a signal.

You’re not alone in this

If you’re questioning your work after returning from maternity leave — you’re not the only one.

And you’re not going backwards.

You’re adjusting to a new version of your life.

And that takes time.

I’m wondering…

Have you felt this shift after returning to work?

Or are you in it right now, trying to make sense of how things feel?

Juliette x