The Maternity Pledge.
Empowering mothers to navigate matrescence and maintain an emotional connection to the workplace.
⚡️ Why this matters to businesses.
⚡️ Why this matters to mothers.
👋 The team.
🤨 FAQs.
Our goals…
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Get businesses to sign up to The Maternity Pledge promising to provide support, transparency and open communication to their employees.
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Gather real life experiences and stories from mothers that can raise awareness of matrescence and help affect actual change in maternity care and maternity leave.
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Introduce expectant and new mothers to the term matrescence, meaning the process of becoming a mother, and normalise it as the transformational experience they will go through in all its complex challenges and joys.
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Provide honest, empathetic and evidence based perinatal communication to help reduce the severity of postnatal mental health disorders.
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Empower expectant and new mothers to advocate for themselves and take care of their own mental health.
Why The Maternity Pledge is so important for businesses?
We don’t think we’re revealing a closely guarded secret when we tell you that a mother’s career is far more interrupted by having a child than a father’s career is.
According to a Government commissioned study in 2018, only 28% of women were in full-time work or self-employed three years after childbirth, compared to 90 per cent of new fathers. Mothers were also much more likely to move to part-time employment once they had a child and those who did return to work experienced career stagnation with a lower chance of getting a promotion. The cost of childcare and the lack of flexible working play a large part in this, so does the absence of workplace support for returning mothers.
Coming back to an environment where you used to thrive after so long away is a daunting prospect for even the most confident of people.
Over half of new mothers don’t feel they have the confidence to return to work after maternity leave (Understanding society 2018). A recent survey by Tena found that 31% of mothers found it harder than expected to return to their job after an average of 10 months’ maternity leave. A quarter found the working environment was nothing like the one they left behind and it took nearly six months to adjust. When you add in that almost one in five felt their boss and colleagues didn’t understand what they had been through - mentally and physically - it creates a culture where these previously valued employees were no longer seen as useful, just because they had a child. The Maternity Pledge gives you the tools to change this and demonstrate your commitment to making your workplace one that values pregnant employees and new mothers. Employers that follow good practice in maternity can improve the experience of pregnant employees and new mothers and encourage them to return to work following maternity leave.
This benefits new mothers, which we all know is morally the right thing to do, and it has wider world implications for reducing the gender pay gap. But it also helps your business thrive as well.
You’re more likely to retain employees and so you won’t have additional costs of recruiting, which according to the CIPD can reach as high as £19,000 for a manager role. The CIPD also notes that “investing in employee wellbeing can lead to increased resilience, better employee engagement, reduced sickness absence and higher performance and productivity.” It will help you attract and retain talent and lead to a happier workplace which is proven to be 12% more productive, have more energy and motivation, learn faster and make better decisions (University of Warwick). New employees are looking for supportive workplaces that are inclusive and value workplace wellness. The 2018 Global Talent Trends survey by Mercer found that one in two employees would like to see a greater focus on well-being at their company.
Simply put, joining the Maternity Pledge is good for business.
Why The Maternity Pledge is so important for mothers?
There is a word for the transformational experience of becoming a mother.
It’s called matrescence.
Developed in the 1970s by medical anthropologist Dana Raphael, the word was left to languish in the academic archives until it was revived and championed in recent years by women like Dr Aurélie Athan, Ph.D and Dr Alexandra Sacks. Matrescence means the physical, psychological and emotional changes you go through after the birth of your child. The problem is, hardly anybody knows this word exists, or what it means, so they don’t have the language to explain what they’re going through. They think they’re a bad mother, or that they have postnatal depression, when sometimes the reality is that they are going through the process of matrescence. This can include a whole host of complex and uncomfortable emotions such as regret, resentment, intrusive thoughts, not enjoying the monotony of being a mother etc… rather than the happy, wonderful, ‘#blessed’ experience that is expected.
There is a lot written about the changes a baby may be going through, but little information and support for how it affects new mothers mentally and emotionally.
Acknowledging matrescence could be a key to unlocking better perinatal mental health. It provides knowledge and gives the language to communicate how they’re feeling. which helps avoid isolation.
The mental health implications of having a baby are huge.
A 2012 study by Esther Hjalmhult and Kirsten Lomberg concluded that “The idea that giving birth is a simple and normal situation may obscure the importance of seamless health care and the need for professional support and information.” If new mothers could be supported in this transition, by planning for it as best they can, being reassured that how they feel is normal and knowing when and where to seek additional support if they need it, we could give the next generation of mothers a more positive recovery and reduce the severity and number of perinatal depression/anxiety cases.
‘A Fourth Trimester Action Plan for Wellness’ was published by registered nurse and academic researcher Jane Savage in April 2020. It highlighted that planning for birth should extend beyond labour and suggests a wellness plan for the fourth trimester. She came to the conclusion that “Planning for stress-reduction measures may serve as a proactive intervention to lessen the incidence of maternal distress, postpartum stress syndrome, or postpartum mood disorders” However, postnatal plans are not widely used in the UK.
We’re doing expectant mothers a disservice by hiding the emotional complexities of what becoming a mother means for them.
Lets normalise the transformational experience they will go through in all its complex challenges and joys as well as empower them to take control of their perinatal mental health.
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“Childbirth brings about a series of very dramatic changes in the new mother’s physical being, in her emotional life, in her status within the group, even in her own female identity. I distinguish this period of transition from others by terming it matrescence to emphasize the mother and to focus on her new life style.”
Dana Raphael, The Tender GIFT: Breastfeeding (1973)
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