Work, Finances and Mental Health

Women talked about how their mental health affected their work and how work, in turn, had an impact on their mental health. For example, some women described times when stress was growing at work – sometimes related to their pregnancyand how it took a toll on their health and wellbeing. Others had to change daily routines to start or leave work earlier than usual due to mental health struggles. However, leaving work altogether, such as taking a leave of absence or early parental leave, wasn’t the right solution for everyone. Some felt isolated and bored at home, which only increased their anxiety and fears.

Mental health challenges also influenced decisions about returning to work in different ways. For some women, going back to work helped them feel better, while others found it emotionally difficult to adjust.

Experiencing mental health challenges during and after pregnancy led some women to actually change their careers in a direction where they could support others going through similar challenges.

 

Work Affecting Mental Health

Many women described a stable and supportive work situation, appreciating their colleagues, enjoying their work or benefiting from good maternity leave arrangements.

Despite good working conditions, Christine still struggled when the baby was born.

Transcript

And I just think about people that I had almost an ideal situation. I have a really supportive partner. I have lots of great family and friends that were helping me. I only have one child. And I had paid really well paid maternity leave from a really good job. […]

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Genna feels fortunate that her partner received compassionate care unemployment benefits to be home and support her.

Transcript

Interviewer: Who was supposed to watch you? My partner was here and his mother and brother were here at that point. So I was really fortunate to have family who could do that. One tip that I would give to other families going through this situation is that we went […]

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However, for others, their work situation negatively impacted their mental health. For example, Geneviève, noticed a drastic changed in the workplace atmosphere after announcing her pregnancy. The ongoing harassment she faced took a severely toll on her mental health, forcing her to stop working. Erin1 shared how stressful it was when her partner was fired during her pregnancy: “…it was definitely stressful, because we didn’t – we were just living on what I was earning. And we, you know, didn’t have any money. And, as well, it was frustration, because my partner had actually gotten fired from his job, so it wasn’t that he was laid off. So there was a lot of tension in our relationship, because I didn’t really understand that. Meanwhile Leah’s partner was deployed with the army shortly after she gave birth, leaving her to struggle with her mental health alone.

Problems at work began right after Geneviève announced her pregnancy, creating stressful situations.

Transcript

Ok. Donc j’ai appris que j’étais enceinte en juillet 2013, donc je travaillais chez… dans une entreprise en lien avec la construction puis dans un milieu d’hommes donc. Et vu que j’avais un poste quand même important, j’ai annoncé ma grossesse tout de suite à mon employeur. Dans le fond, […]

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Four months pregnant and recently fired, Susan sat at home, terrified of what the future held.

Transcript

When I was four months pregnant, I was fired from my job and I went from being a full-time career woman to being at home, having one income, being pregnant, not knowing what was coming next and just being terrified of everything that was to come. I started feeling really […]

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Several women described how their mental wellbeing and feelings affected their work. For instance, several women struggled with constant anger, mood swings, or felt that work had a negative impact on their mental health. This in turn, affected their performance and overall experience at work.

Sara's feelings of rage at home and work led to her decision to see a psychologist.

Transcript

J’étais toujours en colère! J’étais enragée! Contre tout le monde, dont deux [personnes]… Une amie assez proche, puis mon patron. Mon patron, t’sais il est super sweet”, il est très accommodant, t’sais ce n’est pas le patron parfait, mais il est quand même… C’est quelqu’un avec qui je m’entends bien […]

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Joan worried that working shifts until the end of her pregnancy could make her mental health worse.

Transcript

When I was in counselling I got diagnosed with PTSD and borderline tendencies, so when I come forward about that and had asked him “Can you write me a doctor’s note when I have to go back to work so that I’m not on shift work”, like I can’t do […]

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Not everyone had these challenging situations at work. Several people started experiencing anxiety and fears during their parental leave as a consequence of being at home the whole day and not knowing what to do.

Once on leave, Andrea spent the days trembling in fear, anxious about what to do during the day.

Transcript

And eventually she wrote me a note to get me off of work because I wasn’t able to teach anymore. So now I had a different problem, which is I’m someone who always needs to be busy, as many anxious people are. I’m not good when my mind is idle. […]

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Going Back to Work

For many women, returning to work after maternity leave, had a positive impact on their mental health. Erin2 and Emma both highlighted that asking for help, starting medication, getting enough sleep and going back to work were key factors in improving how they felt. Other women also shared how returning to work benefitted them for various reasons. Kaitlyn, for example, described work as a sanctuary, while others mentioned that it helped them break the feeling of isolation, establish a routine, reduce overthinking, and realize that they could bond with their baby even while missing them at work. Additionally, doing something they really enjoyed also played a role in improving their well-being.

For Michelle2, not going back to work was not an option; she needed to work to maintain her mental health.

Transcript

I continued to improve. I came to realise with talking to her that maybe not taking the full maternity leave that I’d planned to take, or not going back to work was not a thing for me. I needed to work for my mental health. So that’s something I discovered, […]

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Going back to work was a turning point for Amanda1 in overcoming her depression.

Transcript

And then I went back to work at um when my daughter was about nine months. Where, where my husband and I work they top up your salary for 12 weeks. So if my husband took three months off work too then he’d get the top up. So it made […]

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However, not everyone experienced positive effects from returning to work. Some women felt worried or guilty about not being with their baby. For instance, Sara felt like she returned to work too soon, while Genna shared her feeling that it took her time to adjust to balancing being a mother and working.

Susan feels guilty about accepting a new job and keeps overthinking what might happen to her child.

Transcript

I’m more confident as a mom now but then I think of all the things in the future that, you know, we haven’t gone through yet and I have no idea what’s next, and that’s scary. And I worry that, you know, going back to work, you know, if I […]

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Sara feels she might have gone back to work too soon as she wasn't feeling better yet.

Transcript

Mais moi je considère que ma dépression elle a duré… Je suis retournée au travail en mai 2013, mais je considère que je n’étais pas encore guérie, ou en tout cas, rétablie, c’est ça. J’ai changé de médication en mai, puis là cette médication-là elle faisait vraiment mieux effet, puis […]

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Some women chose to extend their maternity leave as they felt they needed more time. One key reason for this was to make up for the loss of bonding time or the feeling that they had missed out on their baby’s early months due to the mental health struggles.

Although it was financially challenging Hope extended her maternity leave because she felt she missed out on the first three months with her child.

Written testimony

It was really hard for me to disconnect from work, even in my postpartum period I would think about work, which is, I think, maladaptive really, you know, to be like thinking about work; like you just had a baby. So, in my career, no I’m just, it’s I’m still involved in, I’m still in, you know, I haven’t given everything up, but I’ve given myself a little bit more space and I’ve extended my maternity leave, because I really felt that I lost the first three months with a lot of distress, so I extended my maternity leave. I’m, you know, ‘able to do that’, I mean, not really, but we’ll probably draw a line of credit and stuff lots of times, I have zero income right now. But we’ll just cut back the spending and I know that in the course of my life, however many thousands of dollars I lose over the course of these three months or so, I mean it’s nothing. And I’m even tempted to extend it the whole, for another six months, you know, but we have to do the roof. And I am, and I do like my job and I, yeah so.

In some cases, couples decided that the partner would stop working so that the woman could return to work earlier than planned in the hope that she would start to feel better.

Erin1 returned to work while her partner stayed at home, hoping that things would get better.

Transcript

And as well, I kept thinking about what the doctor had said, that really, the only thing stopping me was fear, and that, you know, I could set myself up and I could, you know, see a psychiatrist and – and maybe this time it wouldn’t be so bad, because […]

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Financial Impacts

In addition to the usual costs of having a baby, several women described facing extra financial challenges due to their illness. For example, some experienced a loss of income due to an extended maternity leave, or had extra costs related to getting mental health care, such as for out-of-pocket fees for services in the private sector, added to financial strain. Some women also faced additional costs because mental health issues impacted their ability to breastfeed, requiring them to buy formula to bottle feed instead. One woman, for instance, was admitted to a mental health unit and wasn’t allowed to see her baby, which further complicated her ability to breastfeed. Karmin explained: “I would’ve liked to have been more aware of the financial – the financial stress that you could feel with having a baby.”

However, many other women didn’t describe any extra financial burdens, either because they had had good coverage with their (or their partner’s) work benefits, savings or took a shorter leave.

Mirian didn't follow up on her referral as she was not willing to pay for the services.

Transcript

So I just kept that referral and I looked at that referral and I thought this is too difficult to do right now. You know? Like, I have a newborn baby. I don’t have time to go after psychotherapy. You know? Like, my income is reduced because I am on […]

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Financial stress played a role in Karmin's depression and in the decision to return back to work earlier than planned.

Transcript

I feel like it can bring – being postpartum and being on maternity leave, I feel like in Canada we’re lucky to even have a maternity leave and receive benefits from the government. But there’s no way that that’s like a livable wage, so I feel like we had a […]

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Change in Career

For several women, experiencing mental health challenges before and after pregnancy led them to think over their careers and make a change. Those who talked about these changes shared stories about the different paths they followed, such as deciding to go back to school or change their studies, starting new projects, or helping to build support systems that could help other women facing similar struggles. For example, Genevieve started a boutique with cafe for mothers, so that there is a place for mothers to meet and break the isolation. Others expressed an interest in finding ways to support others going through similar experiences, either through their current work or by committing to figuring out how to do so. Like Caroline who said: J’ai vraiment le goût de faire quelque chose pour aider les femmes. Je ne sais pas de quelle façon. Mais en tout cas”. [I really feel like doing something to help women. I don’t know how yet. But anyway…”] Translation from the original French. Additionally, Amanda2 decided to resign from her highly stressful job, while Jane talked about needing to push back against the limitless work mentality, as she realized she could not continue that lifestyle.

Karmin is excited to return to the baby and mother unit so that she can help support other mothers.

Transcript

Interviewer: And how do you feel about returning back to work? Do you think it would – [unintelligible] it’s hard to say perhaps now. Some people describe it when they start going back to work, they start feeling better. Yeah, so I kind of feel like – I obviously feel […]

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Emma started her master's degree in counseling psychology because she wants to create a trauma program for mothers.

Transcript

I was sitting in a car with my friend, and I was like, “Listen, I don’t know what it is, but something’s gotta change. And I gotta do something and I can’t just sit here and struggle and suffer anymore.” And then she was –we were talking about school, and […]

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Last updated: 2025-06