Navigating Maternity Leave & Motherhood as a Business Owner

Let’s be honest: being a business owner adds a whole other level of complexity to taking maternity leave.

There’s no HR team to hand you forms and wish you well. It’s just you, your laptop, and a baby who treats 2 a.m. like prime time. The business doesn’t pause, and pretending you can “do it all” is a fast track to burnout.

When I saw the positive pregnancy test with my first baby back in 2020, my first thought wasn’t baby names - it was: “How the hell will my business survive?”

That question changed everything about how I lead, how I scale, and how I support founders today.

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What I Know Now (That I Wish I’d Known Then)

1. A positive test = start building your leave.
   Like Rihanna prepping for the Super Bowl, you don’t wing it. You start rehearsing. The show must go on—even if you’re not center stage.
   
   
2. Postpartum depression and anxiety are real.
   Forget the bounce-back fantasy. My pregnancy in 2020 was a dream, but postpartum? A literal nightmare of stress, depression, and anxiety.
   
   In contrast, my pregnancy in 2023 was brutal, but my postpartum was my easiest yet—because I’d built systems to step back. Planning isn’t weakness. It’s survival.
   
   
3. You need a damn village.
   Beyoncé doesn’t run her empire solo, and neither should you. A partner, a nanny, a VA, an OBM—support isn’t optional. Take it from me, I tried white-knuckling 18-hour days. Never again!

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The Hard Truth? There Is No “Leave” Without Leadership.

Maternity leave as a business owner isn’t time off. It’s a mirror. One that reflects exactly how mature your operations, team, and leadership structure really are. And for most CEOs, the reality is that they’re still the engine of the entire business. No matter how many courses they’ve taken or coaches they’ve hired, they’re doing five jobs. And it shows.

When I got pregnant in 2023, I pulled myself out of client work early. I hired and trained replacements, handed off onboarding, and over-hired by one so if someone quit or got sick, I didn’t panic. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely.

We batched content. Built SOPs. Created a marketing machine that ran without me. By the time I stepped out, the business wasn’t dependent on me—and that freedom was priceless.

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This Isn’t Just My Story—It’s My Clients’ Too

• One BTS client prepped 6 months of content before her due date. She took 15 weeks completely off. Her “work”? Posting on IG 3x a week. Revenue never dipped.
  
  
• Another client restructured her offers before maternity leave. Her mastermind + course sales replaced 1:1 income. During her leave, she actually made more money than before.
  
  
• I treated maternity leave as a test run of stepping away forever. I had my third baby in July of this year and I stepped away from the business completely. Spoiler: the business didn’t burn down. It grew.

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Motherhood Didn’t Break My Business—It Refined It

Let’s be clear: not every mom wants 12 unplugged weeks.
With my first, I needed every second.
With my second, I was peeking into Slack a few weeks later—not because I had to, but because I wanted to.
With my third, I already had the sabbatical playbook down - I took all the time I needed to adjust to the reality of 3 kids under 5 without stressing out about what would happen to my business.

That’s the difference when your business is built with operational maturity and human-first systems: you get to choose.

The work is held.
The team is trusted.
You don’t just survive—you actually feel like a CEO again.

The bottom line? Motherhood doesn’t kill your business. It forces you to stop pretending you can carry it all alone. Babies don’t keep. Businesses will. Choose where your energy goes. Whether it’s maternity leave, a season of grief, or just needing room to breathe, your business shouldn’t collapse when you step away.

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Let’s build the operational backbone your next chapter deserves. Learn more and book a call here.

Want to learn more about how to set yourself up for maternity leave? Click here to get our free e-book “Navigating Maternity Leave & Motherhood As A Business Owner”.