Experience with short-term childcare leave (10 days)

A common perception is that childcare leave is quite long, typically a year. However, working as they do in rapidly advancing fields of technology, many researchers at NIMS cannot afford to be away for a full year, so they opt for short-term maternity leave only. But childcare leave is not limited to a single fixed one-year period, making it possible to take periods of time off during the challenging time after maternity leave. This leave can be tailored to individual circumstances so that it does not significantly affect work.

I gave birth to my second child in mid-January. Subsequently, I took maternity leave until mid-March, and this was followed by approximately 10 days of childcare leave, after which I returned to work on April 1st. With my first child, I took only the maternity leave and then returned to work. But this time, albeit for a short period, I opted to take childcare leave as well. The main reason for this decision was the lack of childcare availability after my maternity leave.

April is the easiest month to enroll children in nurseries; openings are available after that only if space becomes available. Trying to find a place in March is extremely difficult. And anyway, I found myself quite anxious about looking after two children.

Although my childcare leave was a short period of just 10 days, when added to the three months of maternity leave it was enough to give me confidence that I could somehow manage the two children. I was happy not to have to use my paid leave for this; young children often get sick, so it is advisable to save as much paid leave as possible in case it is needed. I believe that even this short period of childcare leave helped me successfully navigate the challenging period immediately after giving birth.