At least 100,000s UK parents return to work after parental leave each year. That’s a lot of first days back isn’t it?

How was yours?

• "Before I had my daughter, work was everything..."
• "I knew I wanted to take a year off… but with that comes… ?"
• "There was a real tidal wave of excitement about the industry..."
• "Where you still have to adapt in your work even 12 years on"
• "I’d be interested to listen to your podcast and hear what other women have to say…"

What's it like on the inside? And how do our experiences along this path shape what comes next?

When does starting a family come to be part of the conversation? And what do we notice about ourselves when it does?

As we take our first steps towards parenthood, the layers of invisible experiences that might be bubbling away inside our heads could shed some light. But first we need a way in.

Can a picture of an everyday family breakfast open up what this path might really be like on the inside?

• "There was a real tidal wave about the industry and I just got swept along with it..."
• "Working hard and working long hours..."
• "I knew who I was and I was happy with where I was at..."
• "I hadn't even thought about children and families at that point..."
• "It made it very, very clear to both of us, actually we really do want to do this..."

THEMES:

• Building early careers
• When do we start a family?
• How many hidden layers are there to this conversation?

Add your story: www.myjourneybacktowork.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Introducing MJBTW

My Journey Back to Work is a listening project and podcast inviting parents to share their experiences. Add your story: www.myjourneybacktowork.com

Starting a family is no longer a future possibility. It becomes our current reality.

From working life to birth, how do we navigate the questions we meet along the way?

As we approach making plans for parental leave, what do we expect our future to look like?

And how comfortable are we to speak openly about this at work?

When do we tell our colleagues and employers? What or how much do we say? And what ripple effects might start to move when we do?

• "I knew I wanted to take a year off. But with that comes, will they remember who I am? What's going to happen in the business while I'm away...?"
• "There are so many expectations we have about being mothers..."
• "It made it very clear to both of us, actually we really do want to do this..."

THEMES:

• Decisions and expectations: future working and family life
• Do we talk about family plans in the workplace?
• Is working life about to change?

This is episode 2. New listeners can find episode 1 here.

Add your story: www.myjourneybacktowork.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Introducing MJBTW

My Journey Back to Work is a listening project and podcast inviting parents to share their experiences. Add your story: www.myjourneybacktowork.com

Does parenthood shift our perspective on if, when and how we decide to go back to work after parental leave?

As we start to find our feet in this parallel world, what happens when work re-enters the picture?

Is our outlook the same?

Do the decisions we made before look the same, ...or different now?

QUOTES:

• "In those first few weeks of parenthood, what sticks in your mind?”
• “One of the defining motherhood moments was that”
• “Like it would just, I'd just work exactly the same way as I'd worked before"

THEMES:

• Adapting to new parenthood
• Two worlds side by side
• Perspectives and priorities: how do we re-shape them?

This is episode 3. New listeners can find episode 1 here.

Add your story: www.myjourneybacktowork.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Introducing MJBTW

My Journey Back to Work is a listening project and podcast inviting parents to share their experiences. Add your story: www.myjourneybacktowork.com

It’s time to make our first morning commute as a parent and we find ourselves back at work.

Or maybe we don’t.

Maybe our circumstances have changed.

Maybe we make a different choice.

Whatever decisions we make, all the layers of experiences of the last however-many-months - visible and not - are coming with us.

Is this part of the reason why many parents say ‘I wish we talked about this more, and more honestly’?

At least 100,000s UK parents return to work after parental leave each year. It’s a lot of first days back… What happens when we share our experiences of them?

QUOTES:

• "Suddenly to be back in the workplace, just felt... ..."
• "It was the first time I stopped to think about work..."
• "What happens if we ask parents what it's like for them...?"

Themes:

• Unique to each parent or echoes between the stories?
• Why do parents say “I wish we talked about it more”?
• Reflections and re-calibrations: how does this path shape what comes next?

This is episode 4. New listeners can find episode 1 here.

Add your story - www.myjourneybacktowork.com

FURTHER LINKS & RESOURCES:

100,000s parents each year?

Several studies in the UK collect, or have collected, data surrounding employment patterns and career trajectories after having a child, for example:

• Gov.UK Research and analysis

Main report

Published 22 October 2019

Main report - GOV.UK

This is connected to the next link, using some of the same data.

• Understanding Society Longitudinal Study (ongoing)

The UK Household Longitudinal Study

Here is data collected on the subject of women’s career trajectories after having a child:

How women's employment changes after having a child - Understanding Society

• Women and the UK economy

Research Briefing By Brigid Francis-Devine, Khadijah Zaidi, Annalise Murray 25 February 2026

Women and the UK economy

However, as of the date of publishing Episode 4 of the podcast (5th June 2026), there doesn’t appear to be a study in the UK that collects data to specifically answer the question: ‘how many parents in the UK return to work after parental leave each year?’ directly. If there is, please send details to hello at myjourneybacktowork dot com.

Without direct data, a rough, simplified estimate of the number of parents returning to work each year after parental leave in the UK can be derived through using data from the ONS (the Office of National Statistics, UK) detailing:

1. the annual total of live births;
2. the employment rate for men and women living in households with dependent children
3. and by making the assumption of 2 parents per child

The figures below are compiled from two different data sets, using the most recent iterations publicly available on the ONS website at the time of episode release.

Data Set 1:

• The number of live births registered in the UK according to the ONS covering the time period of the year 2025, published 27 May 2026:

Total: 585,396

Births in England and Wales: birth registrations - Office for National Statistics

Data Set 2:

• ‘Employment rates for men and women living with and without dependent children in the UK: Table Q’ (latest release 3rd June 2026. It covers the period Jan-March 2026)

Dataset Employment rates for men and women living with and without dependent children in the UK: Table Q

The employment rate for households living with dependent children is given as:

92.7% for men

77.9% for women

Using the assumption of 2 parents per child, we can get an idea of how many parents might be or might have been negotiating ‘return to work’ questions, as follows:

92.7% of the 2025 birth total for fathers (585,396) = 542,662

77.9% of the 2025 birth total for mothers (585,396) = 456,023

Total: potentially in the region of 998,685 parents a year.

These are simplified calculations but they give a sense of the scale of the numbers of people navigating the questions that the series raises.

It is unclear exactly how many parents return to work directly after parental leave and when. And details such as whether the parent leaves the workplace soon afterwards, or makes changes to arrangements or circumstances after their return, aren’t accounted for here.

> And so we arrive at “at least 100,000s parents in the UK return to work after parental leave each year” in some form.

The actual number of UK parents negotiating the themes raised in the series, regardless of whether or not they ultimately return to work, is likely to be significant.

And if taking into consideration the ongoing impacts that this process could continue to have in shaping our working and personal circumstances in the years following, the numbers of parents who have encountered elements of this experience at some point is likely to be far higher.

*NB The ONS does not collect data that covers full employment history details, i.e. as already mentioned, those who leave work soon after returning, or who change working arrangements in the following years.

This is explained in the following link: an ONS response to a Freedom of Information request - MJBTW did not make this FOI request but the ONS’s response demonstrates the challenges in calculating accurate numbers across different studies and data sets, where time periods don’t line up or where data is either not collected or not directly comparable.

Women returning to work after maternity leave - Office for National Statistics

Organisations mentioned in Episode 04:

A small sample of organisations that support/have supported UK working families and working parents:

Family Action (founded 1869)

Working Families

Family Friendly Workplaces