The Best Friend's Guide To Maternity Leave: Making The Most Of Your Precious Time At Home [Paperback]

Betty Holcomb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2002

Every working mother knows that time off for a maternity leave will fly by. And just when you get the hang of the dramatically different pace and routine, it's time again to return to work. The refrain is all too common: "I wish someone had told me from the start how to make the most of my leave...I would have enjoyed it more!"The Best Friend's Guide to Maternity Leave is the reassuring book for prospective mothers that provides this much-needed sisterly advice on managing and making the most of this precious and unique time with a new baby. From hard-won advice on getting a paid maternity leave to dealing with the emotional return to work; from tips on bonding with a newborn to unique activities that will memorialize the time together, The Best Friend's Guide is the book every new mother needs and that every wise friend will give her.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With The Best Friend's Guide to Maternity Leave, author Betty Holcomb tells mothers the wonderful, funny, and sometimes uncomfortable truth about maternity leave. Holcomb, a veteran of two maternity leaves and a contributing editor to Parenting Magazine, takes a practical, non- gimmicky approach to trading career time for precious time with a newborn baby. Reading between the lines of the family medical leave act, she offers sensible strategies for every phase of maternity leave, including how to convince your boss that you really plan on coming back, juggling finances, recovering from childbirth, comparing breast versus bottle feeding, staying in touch with the office, understanding why your husband may disappear, and coping with your first weeks back on the job.

Holcomb tackles tough questions, asking for example: When the boss calls and the baby is crying, whoM do you put on hold? One standout chapter offers an insightful view of post-baby marriage and counsels working couples to explore "what it means to 'help' and what it means to 'share'--and how that difference can change your marriage." Other chapters include a fresh view of the mothers' cult of sacrifice. Holcomb suggests that each new mother needs private time to recharge batteries but also to integrate a new view of herself. Yet her wise words must be underscored with the knowledge that for many working mothers maternity leave is not an option. Ultimately, the issues raised here are compelling evidence for making parent leave affordable to all parents. -- Barbara Mackoff --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Beyond postpartum depression, there are scores of things that women need to know to maximize the standard six to eight weeks of maternity leave and minimize the adjustment to a new baby. Holcomb offers sound advice on negotiating the best terms for maternity leave and staying engaged with the workplace while on leave and after returning to work. Holcomb covers everything from handling the logistics of breast- versus bottle-feeding to reducing exhaustion from housework by lowering expectations and getting help. She advises women to get the maximum maternity leave provided by the company, ask for more time, and start the leave before the baby is born. Holcomb notes that the U.S and South Africa are the only industrialized nations with no paid maternity leave. She covers federal, state, and local laws on maternity leaves as well as leave to care for an adopted child. Holcomb intersperses the information with accounts of her own two maternity leaves and the experiences of other women. A companionable and helpful resource. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (October 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738206903
• ISBN-13: 978-0738206905
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,351,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BabyLounge gives 5 pacifiers to The Best Friend's Guide..., August 26, 2001

By 

Vicky Collins - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best Friend's Guide To Maternity Leave: Making The Most Of Your Precious Time At Home (Hardcover)

A cross between the "Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy" and "The Rules," this guide is chock full of useful advice on how to handle your maternity leave from work. The author takes you step-by-step on all the essential steps of your maternity leave, from deciding how much time you will need off to making the transition back to work. You will learn a great deal about what steps you'll need to take before, during and after the birth of your child. Some important topics that are covered include how to negotiate time off, deciding between breast and bottle, making the transition to parenthood, how to find time for yourself, and finding quality childcare. Last, but not least, an entire chapter is dedicated to getting back to work. With the humor and wit of this book, you will feel like your best friend is with you during the entire time - giving you real-life wisdom and perspective that only a best friend could give you. A great gift for your pregnant friends that will be returning to work.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Read BEFORE your leave!!! Like in your 2nd trimester!, January 9, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Best Friend's Guide To Maternity Leave: Making The Most Of Your Precious Time At Home (Hardcover)

This book is good to read if you have not yet even thought about your maternity leave yet, like in your 2nd trimester of pregnancy. However, if you've already got some idea of what you're doing, or if you're already on leave (like myself), then it really doesn't have a lot of info for you. Really, the parts that I found most helpful in my situation were just emotional anecdotes about how crazy you feel at this time in your life - it's just nice to know someone else feels the way I do. The answer to the question the title seems to ask ("how do I make the most of my maternity leave?") is really given as "Don't expect to get anything accomplished on your leave. Just take care of that baby." Well, I think there are better suggestions out there than that. (If I may be so presumptuous, I'll add my own advice - Get the baby on a tight 3-4 hour feeding schedule. Keep a pen and paper by your chair where you feed the baby. While the baby's feeding, make a list of things you want to get done. That way you at least know when you can do things, and when you have that time, you know what needs to be done. It's working for me!)

The book does offer some facts about leaves of absence and ideas about alternative child care and work arrangements, but this was knowledge I already had, at my stage of the game. The title of the book should have been "The Best Friend's Guide to Maternity Leave: PLANNING FOR Your Precious Time at Home."

(Another note, and this is a pet peeve: the author takes literary license and writes with sentence fragments, which is fine in small doses. However, there are so many examples of this in the book that it makes it very distracting/awkward to read in some places....)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Read this book during pregnancy, May 5, 2003

By 

"aamberwaves" (Mahtomedi, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best Friend's Guide To Maternity Leave: Making The Most Of Your Precious Time At Home (Hardcover)

This book is helpful if you read it in the beginning of pregnancy. It does a lot of cheerleading for you to get the most out of your employer for maternity leave but lacks specific instructions or advice. I was looking for ways to get the most out of the maternity leave I was already on and the book did not fit my needs.