Any other freelancers?

What's your plan for baby/maternity leave?

I went freelance with my work after DD1 was born almost three years ago. I work out of my home on a project basis. Obviously, since I'm self-employed, I don't get a real maternity leave, but I am planning to take about a month off and then start slowly taking on work again. My biggest stress right now is stopping work before my due date. I'm due 12/30, so I'm' trying to wrap up all outstanding work by 12/15 (I'll be 38 weeks). But in my biz, there are always revises, last minute changes, etc. I'm just afraid I'll be in labor or in the hospital, needing to answer questions and such. Everyone knows the situation, but I sign a contract to do the entire job so I'm sort of on the hook. Just curious how others plan to handle this or have handled it in the past.

Re: Any other freelancers?

I'm not a freelancer, but I have been working from home since DD's birth.

You only need a few days fully off for the delivery, and you can work from home with your LO is you need to. In fact, I worked this morning on some projects with LO sleeping in the rock n play next to me. It stinks but it's doable.

HTH!

Re: Any other freelancers?

For my last baby, I didn't take any time off before delivery, I was actually doing work in the L&D room when I was admitted because of low fluid (had an emergency c the next day). I took off about a week and that was it, I couldn't afford to take any more time than that.
I don't know what you do, but I know for me, that there are always others who are willing to step in to work on a project if someone is unable to.

Re: Any other freelancers?

Thanks for the responses! I'm a magazine writer and a total free agent, so there's no one to pick up my slack (except for assigning editors, but because they're paying me to do it, they're not exactly happy to do so). I have deadlines, but they almost always spill past the date because of changes and such. If I take on work until the end, I would definitely leave someone hanging big time if I go into labor sooner. With DD1, I was on staff at a mag, so I had other dept. members to pick up slack.

Hopefully my plan works out. I'd really like at least a few weeks off to simply bond with baby and my almost 3-year-old DD—and not stress over deadlines. I definitely can't get work done without a sitter present when it's just DD, especially since a lot of my work involves phone interviews. Adding a NB to the mix would certainly be interesting

Message edited 11/27/2013 4:51:04 PM.