how much time I get for maternity leave in 2025 UK and how I plan to capitalise this time💸
chapters:
maternity leave
is it time-off?
making the most of leave
capitalizing on my time
If you don't know already, I'm pregnant in my second trimester and it was something I never wanted for myself. But here we are.
I'm all about taking control of our narrative and still achieving our dreams, even if, and when, things don't go according to our plan.
I take you along how I do it, in hopes of inspiring anyone else in the same or similar circumstances as me!
Today, I talk about maternity leave:
how much time I have off for maternity leave in 2025
how much of that time is "time-off"
my ultimate goal for my Blog during this time
how I plan to capitalize on my leave to get ahead on my ultimate Blogging goal
I walkthrough my basic step-by-step plan on how I will get to where I want in 2025, whilst reporting all the milestones I come to along the way.
I already reached one of my milestones of achieving 1MILLION Pinterest views, which I shared with you all here!
And with many more to come, let's get into it!
maternity leave
I'm London-based, so this will all be by the UK allowance, but also depends on your job.
I currently work full-time 9-to-5, and have been in the same job for about a year-and-a-half, so I get a maternity leave allowance of 1-year off work (12 months).
I have also spoken about my maternity leave PAY for those who are curious; very rough estimates of how much I should earn during maternity leave; over the full course of time. Only mentioning how much I should expect to earn, and not how much I expect to spend, since I still have no idea about baby expenses, and it will probably vary A LOT by month, but I will write a blog post in-future for whoever is interested, in how much I spend per month with a newborn
On top of the maternity leave of 1-year, I also get my annual leave allowance, alongside this leave.
My yearly annual leave is 33 days, so 6 weeks and 3 days
My maternity would overlap both 2025 and 2026, so I would get my combined annual leave of what remains in 2025 PLUS 2026 full allowance (unless I choose to save some days for when I "hypothetically would go back to the job; mid-2026").
2025 allowance: around 20 days left (since I'm taking some holiday before maternity leave)
2026 allowance: 33 days (since I don't plan to leave any left, more on that later in this post: my ultimate goal)
ALTOGETHER, I have a total of 53 days or roughly 10 weeks extra of leave on-top of my maternity leave, OR 2.5 months
Total maternity leave would, therefore, be 1-year and 2.5 months (almost one-year and a quarter!).
is it time-off?
Well, I wanted to tackle this one briefly and quickly, since it sounds like a whole holiday, and to many other girlies it might be, since they might have a different perception of motherhood (this was something I never planned for), but to me it most definitely isn't going to be "time-off".
It will be "time-off" from my 9-to-5, which I have to say is one of the things I am MOST excited about.
However, it will definitely be a whole adjustment to a new role, raising a whole other human, and navigating a complete new lifestyle of choirs and responsibilities attached to having a baby.
This, to say that knowing the nature of maternity leave (at least to me) helps me navigate (very roughly once again) what to expect and how my capability to show-up for my Blog and Pinterest, may be affected during this time.
Awareness of this helps me prepare ahead to set myself up for as much success as possible, in both my online Blog business here at 'in her Full Effect', and personal life; in navigating a new role of motherhood and hopefully finding joy and a new balance.
Being able to prepare, allows me more mental space to reduce my chances of being so overwhelmed during postpartum, by allowing myself the opportunity to focus on one thing at a time, rather than trying to juggle my Blog and a big life transition, as maternity, at the same time (which I have NO CLUE how I will experience, but I am planning as much in-advance to have a positive postpartum experience).
This is to reflect my intention to stay consistent on my Blog, and keep showing up throughout the whole of 2025, by scheduling content ahead of time, so my Blog can be running for me.
making the most of leave
Now that I know how long I have of maternity leave across 2025 and 2026, and now that I know what to expect roughly from this transition into motherhood (capability vs time), like:
the potential for not having the capability to create content in the first few months with a newborn (possible sleep deprivation, adjusting to a new role and emotional load)
knowing to expect the unpredictable
not knowing what life will look like and what time flexibility will look like also
I can use this knowledge, even if it is of the unknown, and awareness to inform me on how to best-prepare to make the most of my leave. That's half of the equation done.
My definition of making the most of my leave, in terms of my Blogging business, is:
staying consistent with my content release and Pinterest
fulfilling my 2025 goals to expand and diversify my Blog (blog post coming soon on my roadmap plan for 2025)
making sure I am always getting better and elevating the quality of my brand in her Full Effect; across ALL platforms
achieving my ultimate 2025 goal for my Blog during this time (later in this post)
To make the most of my maternity leave, I plan to tackle my year by quarters so I can breakdown and put all my efforts into more achievable steps.
By "quarter", I just mean breaking the year of 2025 into 4 blocks of 3-months.
first Quarter: January to March-end
second Quarter: April to June-end
third Quarter: July to September-end
fourth Quarter: October to December
Then, I establish my capability certainty; how much capability I am certain I can show-up for (at least as an estimate):
Q1: full capability most of the time (going into my third trimester)
Q2: no or little capability (final stages of pregnancy, expected date of birth and postpartum)
Q3: little capability (newborn months; adjusting to a new routine; unpredictable time quality)
Q4: full capability (I expect to be better-capable of balancing what time I have and how to manage time in this new role and phase)
Therefore, if I know I definitely will not be able to show-up for my Blog with capability for quality of content, during the second and third quarter of the year, I plan to try do the MOST during the first and last quarter of 2025 for balance and accountability.
To stick to my definition of making the most of my maternity leave, and aligning to my Blogging business goals, this would mean I would need to prioritise the first and last quarter of 2025 to:
batch content and pins as far ahead in-time as possible
schedule content and pins as far ahead in-time as possible
diversify into other platforms for my 2025 roadmap for growth and monetisation
elevate the quality of my Blog: in its aesthetics, legal policies, trademark-register my brand, start email marketing on the Blog
From the list above, batching and scheduling would be my main focus for Quarter 1 of 2025, so that I can assure my consistency throughout maternity, AND diversifying and elevating is my main focus in both Quarter 1 and Quarter 4.
This all depends on how much content I can get batched ahead of time!
capitalizing on my time
Capitalizing is all about having your goal in-mind.
For me, my ultimate goal with my Blog in 2025, is to monetise my Blog and make money online via Ad Agencies primarily, and my bigger goal for 2026 is to not go back to my 9-to-5 BECAUSE I will be able to earn enough from my Blog to become my own boss (what a slay!).
With this goal in-mind, I need to know what plan I need to create to get to my goal.
What are the steps to get me to go my goal?
This is exactly what I did when I listed out what I needed to get done, and then allocated these tasks to specific quarters of the year.
Once you know the answer, you will know how to capitalize on your time so you can get to your goal, and that's when you can breakdown your year by quarter (as I did above) and establish your priorities and plan to get there.
I will know I will have capitalized on my time during maternity leave in 2025, once I fulfil everything I have planned to achieve (everything I listed in this blog post).
It will be even more real once I see the results of my capitalized time in 2025 in the form of:
reaching eligibility criteria to apply for Ad Agencies: anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 monthly page views (depending on agency you apply to)
making any quantity of money online from my Blog
Knowing that I have over-1 year of maternity leave from my 9-to-5 makes me extra driven to give it my-ALL and even more! I will take you along with me the whole way through so you can replicate my success if that's what aligns with you!
Own your Womanhood. Own your Time.
♡
I’ll be logging updates throughout this whole journey as a mother-to-be, working to be an entrepreneur, but to also still preserve the girlhood within, to try and be her best self, and live her happiest life, so keep-up with me through the blog!
I release a new blog post every Friday at 1pm!(UK-time)
Let me know if you’re in a similar headspace (pregnant or not), being in our 20s is confusing, and taking control of our story is the only way we can take ownership of our happiness and live out our dream life.
I document my unwanted pregnancy journey at 25, taking control of my narrative, figuring out being a girl in my 20s, chasing my dream life, and conquering my boss babe dream of becoming a self-employed, entrepreneur / Blogger!