| | February 20199programs on-boarding, flexible work-options, focused mentoring and on job learning for women candidates. Such initiatives act like a launch pad and will provide conducive environment to young mothers to address their concerns.5. Provide clarity of the role when she returns.6. Mentor or counsel her to mentally & emotionally balance the change.7. Help with backup when the woman employee is about to proceed on leave and after she returns too to meet any unforeseen situations like issues of health before delivery, sudden absence of caretaker, urgent work delivery schedule where the young mother is reluctant to stay too long at work without a back-up child care facility and the like.8. Be in touch with the young mother during her maternity leave through gestures like a congratulatory hamper upon birth of the child, some updates about the organisation and department, a visit during the period to the young mother's house by colleagues with prior permission of course! These gestures enhance the feeling of being cared for.Employers have to come-up with HR policies & processes which are women friendly like:1. Ensure mental health is interwoven into child and mother care policies - arrange impactful interventions which can be delivered by well-trained, health providers to fight depression of a new mother. This would be much in lines of the policies of the World Health Organisation too.2. Facilitate creation of support groups within the organisation to encourage new mothers to develop better self-esteem, nurture health as a priority with good exercise and nutrition.3. Infrastructure support of a crèche or day care centre, breast feeding room and a special vehicle parking slot to enter and leave office early.4. Allow a family member to accompany the pregnant woman employee on official tours if such travel is inevitableOn the part of the woman employee who wishes to be in employment, she needs to develop short-term and long-term career goals early on as this is the best way she can support herself and demonstrate her focus to her job. Thereafter, it is important to have conversations around these goals with her boss before going on maternity leave and after returning too. While on maternity, it is expected that a woman takes good care of herself and the child. Even so, it may be good to give a reassurance to her team that she would be available to take a call or two in case of any issues. Women should look-up for child care options early on during their pregnancy. In general, when re-joining work after maternity break, every young mother must be mentally prepared to face challenges of acceptance and worthiness for a temporary period till finally the dust settles.
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