Having a baby—either biologically or via adoption—is a wonderful, exhausting, amazing, stressful experience. And what can make it more wonderful and more stressful is leave—whether you as a mother or father get any, and how much you get. (Because honestly, it’s never enough.)
Unfortunately for many people, having a baby and worrying about leave is a fraught conversation. That’s because there’s no guarantee of any sort of leave in the United States, and many people are faced with taking leave without pay, or taking less than they’d like because that’s all their company offers. If you do have leave for the arrival of a child, figuring out how to make the return to work less stressful is key, too. So what are some strategies that might work, and what should you know about leave—before you ever have to have that time off? This graphic explains them.
