MATERNITY LEAVE: Space. Clarity. Courage & Change.

How Motherhood Helped Me Redesign My Career I’d Spent 18 Years Building

For 18 years I worked in primary education.

Teaching. Leading. Supporting children, staff and families - from building tardis’ to inspire learning to training the next generation of teachers.

Before I knew it, I’d worked my way up to Senior Assistant Head role at a large junior school — a role I had worked incredibly hard to reach. A role that came at a very uncertain time in the school, along with a whole load of unanticipated stress.

On paper, it looked like I had built the career I’d always planned. Except - I hadn't ever ‘planned’ any of it. 

I was good at my job - really good - outspoken, a strong leader and open to opportunities…but it was never a ‘plan’.

And then, in 2018 -  I became a mum for the very first time (giving birth 1 day after leaving for maternity!).

And like many women, motherhood didn’t just change my life as a whole,  it changed how I saw everything.

My priorities shifted.

My focus shifted.

My energy shifted (and dwindled!)

During those wonderfully adventurous months of maternity leave bliss, I started to realise just how stressed and close to burn out I’d been in my job. I’d been consumed by it for years without realising.

And then, the dreaded day came when I had to have the ‘back to work’ conversation with my employer. 

I had it all planned out:

I’d return part-time. 2 days a week ideally but I’d compromise at 3. No problem…

Except, there was a problem.

When the Plan No Longer Fit

When the time came to have ‘the meeting’, I went ahead and requested flexible working.

Not because I wasn’t committed to my job — quite the opposite. I cared deeply about the work I was doing.

But I wanted to be present for my child and family.

I didn’t want to be consumed once again.

It was then my maternity bubble burst.

The request was refused.

My options were simple: return full-time to a senior leadership role, step down several pay scales to become a classroom teacher, or leave and risk having to pay back the maternity pay.

Anyone who has navigated the return-to-work conversation after having a baby will know how emotionally loaded that moment already is. Suddenly feeling like you have to choose between your career or your family makes it even harder.

For the coming weeks I was consumed. Instead of focusing on my new baby - I was distracted with unfairness, the discrimination I’d felt for being a mum, frustration for the years spent putting in hour after hour only to be told ‘ no thank you’.

After a difficult process, I left.

In hindsight, sometimes those forced decisions are some of the best ones you make. 

The Space to Rethink Everything

Within a week I’d secured a new part-time teaching role at another school for when my year’s maternity finished and continued teaching. But something had changed. 

My whole world in fact.

Along with the new-found determination never to have a job that stressed me out, consumed me or ruled my life.

I just didn’t know what an alternative could look like - or if it would even be possible.

By the time I went on maternity leave with my second child 3 years later, and after the whole-world changed post covid, I realised I needed to start thinking differently about my future.

It was time.

Teaching had given me so much — but it had also come with huge pressure, long hours and constant stress.

Motherhood - and my second maternity leave - gave me something that working life rarely allows: space to reflect.

It made me ask a question I hadn’t really paused to consider before:

What kind of life do I actually want?

Not just what job.

But what life?

What do I want my day, week, month, year to look like?

The Two-Year Plan

During that second maternity leave, I made a decision.

I was going to build a way out of teaching.

I had no idea how. No idea what doing. No idea if it was even possible. But I knew I had to make a change. 

I quietly gave myself two years to retrain, build something new and create a different path.

Which might sound slightly ambitious when you also have:

• a newborn
  

• a four-year-old
  

• and a demanding job waiting for your return
  

But motherhood has a way of making you really focus. A way of making you truly believe in yourself more than you ever have - afterall I had just given birth naturally to a 10lb 8oz baby without any pain relief! 

I could do anything, right?!

I wanted freedom, creativity, challenge, enjoyment, flexibility, opportunity…

I didn’t know what that would look like in reality, at some points I don’t even think I was consciously thinking about it in detail…but subconsciously I knew ‘I wanted out’ of the known and wanted ‘in’ on the new.

Discovering a New Career

But where do you start when you’ve been in the same career since you were early 20’s and now turning 40?

It was hard.

I started by looking at the skills I already had.

Years in education had given me strengths in communication, persuasion, simplifying complex ideas and understanding people but it took me a long time to unearth those. I felt stuck for a really long time thinking teaching was all I knew and all I could know. 

The biggest advice I would give at this point is start talking to people who are doing different jobs to you - in different careers. Head into community groups, start chatting to people, join networking.

I didn’t even know these things existed before leaving the indoctrination of education…but they do exist and they are so so very welcoming - as you know being inside MOB.

Skip forward a fair few months and this thing called ‘copywriting’ popped up into my world - through a facebook ad or targeted email I think.

I’d never heard of it.

I didn't know what it was.

But once I started reading about it - it clicked!

I’d been doing this throughout my 18 yrs without even knowing it!

So, between night feeding my milk-monkey, daytime naps and drives out to the coast for fresh air and ridding of fog-brain, I began learning everything I could — courses, practice, more training — while now back at teaching 2 days a week and raising two young children.

It was messy (very messy) even with the support of my other half who believed in me and gave me the nod to believe in myself.

It was exhausting, yet exciting!

It was consuming in a very different, invigorating way. I felt like my brain had been switched back on!

And slowly, the pieces started to come together. 

I began working with clients and building a freelance business alongside my teaching job.

But it wasn’t enough to ‘make the leap’.

Plus I now had debt to worry about as I’d made an investment of 4 thousand pounds (which I didn’t have and had to spread it across credit cards) into a 6 month coaching programme to try and accelerate my growth and learning.

And that hurt.

A lot.

It took me to a place where I nearly burnt out. I lost track of why I had decided to build a business of my own. It put me on the fast track: Early mornings. Late nights. Relentless content, lead growth, more more more. I was over it.

It was too much.

So I took stock.

I had learnt a lot from the programme - many of the things I still take with me now, but instead of trying to keep up with how others did it - I stopped and got comfortable doing it my way. Carving my own adventure into this wonderful world of business building. 

And boy did that feel a whole lot better.

My growth may be slower, but the adventure is way more enjoyable!

Leaving the Classroom

Just over two years after making that decision on maternity leave, my plan became reality.

In July 2025, I closed the classroom door for the last time.

For a long time I had been juggling three demanding roles: teaching, parenting and building a business.

Now I run my business full-time - my version of full-time.

My children are now 3 and just turned 8…I have 6 months left with my youngest before she starts school - there’s no way I’m giving up my 2 days a week with her for swim lessons, ballet class, hot chocolate by the sea and bike rides.

The flexibility and headspace taking the leap out of employment has given my family is something I will never take for granted.

Do I have the same predictable income as a salaried job?

Not yet. Far from it.

Can we do all the things we could do before - not all of them.

But the freedom, increased wellbeing, creative outlet and flexibility it gives us is something I couldn’t have imagined before.

And that’s my measure of success.

I’m genuinely living a life I never knew existed.

Lessons Learnt

Looking back at those key defining moments: being refused flexi working, a year of maternity leave, a change of school setting, another year of maternity…becoming a mum didn’t dampen opportunities or slow my career down, it reshaped my adventure and gave me the courage to step out of the known.  

It forced me to think more carefully about time, priorities and what success actually looks like.

It made me realise I didn’t want a career that demanded everything from me.

I wanted to build something that worked alongside my life — not against it.

What I Wish I’d Known

If I could go back and speak to myself at the start of this journey, I’d say three things.

First: it will take longer than you think — and that’s okay.

Building something new while raising children isn’t a straight line. Progress might feel slower than you expected, but it still counts.

Second: your skills are more transferable than you realise.

For years I thought teaching defined my career path. But the skills I developed — communication, learning processes, teaching skills, empathy, leadership, creativity  — are the foundation of my business today.

And third: what’s the best that could happen?

At first I felt very alone on my adventure, I felt silly, uneducated in the world of business and feared no one would take me seriously.

That’s until I started using the reframe: ‘What’s the BEST that could happen?’ And I urge you to try it too. That question to myself opened up doors, conversations and connections which still play a big part in my adventure to this day. It led me to the communities I’m in and the opportunities I’ve had.

The Highs and Lows

Building a business alongside motherhood has come with plenty of both.

Highs: landing my first clients, seeing something I created actually work, and realising the exit plan I made on maternity leave was actually becoming real.

Lows: doubt, exhaustion, and wondering whether I was being unrealistic, or getting carried away.

But every step has taught me something.

And the biggest lesson of all?

It’s possible to rebuild your career in a way that works for the life you want.

Sometimes motherhood is the catalyst that gives you permission to do exactly that.

Louise Mcguill | Email Energiser | Mum of 2 Wildling Girls

Louise Mcguill is an email marketing strategist and educator who helps service providers build meaningful connections with their audience through thoughtful, relationship-first email marketing. After 18 years in education and school leadership, Louise retrained and built her business alongside motherhood. Today she teaches business owners how to grow an engaged email list, nurture trust with their audience and communicate with clarity and confidence — without feeling salesy or overwhelmed.

Connect with Louise on LinkedIn or join her email community for practical guidance on building a business through written connection, not constant content.