‘I will regret it for the rest of my life’: How women feel forced to shorten maternity leave over low pay

Maya Oppenheim reports on new research which finds four in 10 mothers took just 12 weeks or less of maternity leave after birth of most recent child

A woman forced to go back to work six weeks after giving birth due to not being able to live on statutory maternity pay has said she will regret the decision for the rest of her life.

Laura Mazzeo, from north London, told The Independent she went back to her job in construction after taking six weeks of government maternity pay despite being very physically weak at the time due to having recently undergone surgery.

It comes as new research from campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed, which polled almost 6,000 women, has found four in 10 mothers took just 12 weeks or less of maternity leave after the birth of their most recent child due to the low levels of maternity pay in the UK.

“I will regret it for the rest of my life,” Ms Mazzeo said. “Not being able to take time to recover and adjust to that new state of life really puts pressure on your relationship with the baby and then you resent the baby. It means you can’t take into account the change and adapt – as you are forced to go back to how you were but you can’t.”

The 40-year-old said she experienced complications following her pregnancy so had placentas removed via surgery six weeks after giving birth.

She added: “They put you under local anaesthetic and if they don’t do this you can die of sepsis. I was very weak after the surgery. I could walk very little and very slowly, you have no physical strength.”

The mother of one said she was self-employed at the time so would have had no income coming in if she did not work.

“In hindsight, it was a terrible mistake,” Ms Mazzeo said of her decision to return to work. “At the time because my son was not sleeping at all and couldn’t take formula very well, and so on, and I thought this was the best way to get back at things.”

I will regret it for the rest of my life. Not being able to take time to recover and adjust to that new state of life really puts pressure on your relationship with the baby and then you resent the baby

Laura Mazzeo

She said she was fortunately able to work from home but explained she did not have family around to help with childcare and hired a maternity nurse to support them.

Ms Mazzeo added: “It exerted a lot of pressure on my mental health. You are constantly being torn between wanting to book in time with your newborn and worrying you are not earning enough for this new life to be catered for.

“I came back into the workforce feeling I was not good at anything: not good at being a mum, not good at being a professional. You feel worthless. Without the resources I had put aside, it could have gone really, really wrong.”

Research by Pregnant then Screwed found three-quarters of mothers have been pushed into debt or into taking money out of their savings due to low statutory maternity pay.

Statutory maternity pay for much of the leave is only 43 per cent of the national living wage, researchers point out, saying this means many families face financial struggles.

Campaigners have urged the government to increase statutory maternity pay and maternity allowance so it tallies with the national living wage. They say maternity leave which surpasses 12 weeks carries massive benefits for both mother and child.

I came back into the workforce feeling I was not good at anything: not good at being a mum, not good at being a professional. You feel worthless. Without the resources I had put aside, it could have gone really really wrong

Laura Mazzeo

In the UK, statutory maternity leave is paid for up to 39 weeks – with mothers getting 90 per cent of average weekly earnings before tax for the first six weeks. After that, mothers get £184.03 or 90 per cent of their average weekly earnings, whichever sum is lower, for the next 33 weeks.

Joeli Brearley, founder and chief executive of Pregnant Then Screwed, said: “Maternity pay is an abomination. How is anyone meant to survive on £184 a week, which is less than half the minimum wage – the lowest amount someone can live on.

“The perinatal period is critically important to the health and wellbeing of a mother and her child, and I think we should all be deeply concerned that, due to severe hardship, we are now seeing a degeneration and a degradation of this vital period. Ultimately, it is a false economy to not pay parental leave at a rate on which families can survive and thrive.”