The Key Learning Points:

1. The challenges new mothers face when returning to the workplace

2. The importance of female role models in reassuring other working mums that they can return to a career after having children

3. Tips on how to change attitudes towards paternity leave and flexible working

A few weeks back, we were joined by Hilary Banks from Vitality and had a very candid conversation around her career journey and her experience becoming a working mum and having her two young sons. The episode aired on the Friday 10th January. We invited Hilary back onto the Risky Mix podcast to carry on the conversation around motherhood and the challenges she faced returning to the workplace.

Hilary talks to us about the importance of female role models in the industry, women that have had children and returned to work, with whom we are able to have open and honest conversations about starting a family. She believes that we need to be able to have those conversations without feeling that our careers or positions in the workplace are in jeopardy. 

Hilary discusses the challenges she faced around balancing work and family, especially when her child was starting nursery and was regularly falling sick. She talks about the guilt she felt juggling both her sick child and work when she knew that she should have been committed to being at home with her family, explaining that “unless you've got people above you that are saying, this is ridiculous, you don't need to do this” we tend to try and do both. She feels that the key is to have women in senior positions to act as role models, helping us to feel that it is ok to be with our sick children and not feel the necessity to work.  

Hilary feels that we still have a way to go when it comes to flexible working, especially for new parents. There are so many situations where the fathers have just two weeks off, which she believes is just not enough, so there needs to be more balance when it comes to paternity leave also. She says that “There also needs to be that acknowledgement that men feel that way too and they want to spend time with their kids, and we need to be able to allow them the flexibility to do exactly that.”

Hilary returned to work 13 weeks after having her first child and she talks about the pressure and difficulties new mothers face having to make the difficult decision around when to return to work. She suggests the idea of paid phased return to work, to help women with the financial aspect and also the mental challenges that many face during this period.

Hilary muses about what she would have told her 18-year-old self when starting out. She would tell herself to take more risks and not be frightened to fail. She thinks it’s important to throw yourself into situations where you are going to be disappointed, as you will learn from those experiences. She adds “ I've put myself in a position where I've done it multiple times so that I can demonstrate to my business that I'm a serious contender and don't mess with me!“

She would also ask herself to be more authentic around being a mum. “I will always be a working mum, and my children will grow up with parents with incredible work ethics, but I definitely have massive regrets over periods when I should have been dedicated to my children.”

A lot has changed since Hilary was last on maternity leave across the industry and Vitality is keen to express how they support their staff when they start a family. They've confirmed that they support new parents by offering equal maternity and paternity leave to all staff and up to 18 weeks paid leave depending on the amount of continuous service a person has. New parents are supported back into the workplace with either formal or informal flexible working arrangements and appropriate facilities for expressing milk are being provided in all sites.