Women Who Work has a mentoring programme designed to provide women returning to work from maternity leave encouragement and support.

When we surveyed women who have returned to work after children we asked them what they struggled with and we are hoping to address some of these issues namely:

1.     Feeling alone in your decision to return while others remain on maternity leave

2.     Lack of female role models in your workplace or personal life

3.     Navigating the various decisions that need to be made about when and how to go back, including childcare challenges

Each quarter we have a group of 5-15 women who are returning to work from maternity leave in professional services. You will all be going through a similar experience and we hope that this group provides you with camaraderie, much like people get from NCT/Bump & Baby groups, and helps reduce the feeling that you are alone.

What does the programme entail?

We will host three virtual sessions in the evening from 7:30 to 8:30 during the quarter These are informal and give the chance for participants to share, support, discuss and vent!

There will also be a WhatsApp group for you from the start of the programme which we hope will provide a forum for discussion, questions and sharing of ideas. We, the organisers, will also use this as a way to broadcast new resources, such as our podcast, and also remind you about our upcoming calls. You are also, of course, encouraged to meet up with anyone in the group throughout the programme, and beyond. As with NCT courses we hope that we may initiate some long-term friendships, and indeed possibly business connections.

Finally we will meet for lunch at the end of the quarter to celebrate!

Scotland mentoring programme

Following the success of the wider programme, we are now setting up a Scotland mentoring programme for women returning to work in professional services in Scotland. This is run by Mhoraig Blair who works remotely from Edinburgh, and Kirsten Partridge who works in Glasgow.

The Scottish mentoring programme will kick start in Q1 2025 so please sign up via the registration form if you are returning to work from maternity leave in 2025 and based in Scotland!

Register your interest

If you, or anyone you know, is returning to work in the near future in professional services and would be interested in joining our pilot please complete the form at the following link and we will be in touch: