Work from home for many parents mean more work because often the boundaries between work and home life are blurred. While that may be useful at some points, if you are a mum returning to work after maternity leave and is working from home, I encourage you to set boundaries.

Boundaries are necessary to protect your emotional health. Working from home should not translate into doing everything at the same time. I want you to ask for what you need and create an atmosphere that allows you to work in a manner that will enable you, not deplete you.

Here are 8 questions to ask your employer and get in writing BEFORE you go on maternity leave.

1. What is the organisation's maternity leave and breastfeeding policy?

2. How many Keep-In-Touch (KIT) days do I have?

3. How does the organisation support breastfeeding on return to work?

4. How many breaks and I entitled to apart from my lunch break for feeding purposes?

5. How long will these breaks be?

6. If need be, can I feed my baby during work meetings?

7. How will the team ensure that there will be no important meetings or significant discussions during my pre-allocated breastfeeding breaks?

8. For the days I come into the office, what facilities are available for me to breastfeed/express milk?

Remember, if you don't ask you will never know.

For mums who have already been through this phase, did you ask these? If yes, what were the responses? If no, why was that? Leave a comment and let's chat!

Anjali