Returning to work after maternity leave: “No, postpartum doesn’t stop at the office doors”
Interview by Louise Auvitu
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Returning to work after maternity leave is like giving birth to a new mother: that of a working mother. JULIAN STRATENSCHULTE / DPA PICTURE-ALLIANCE VIA AFP
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Interview Becoming a mother, returning to her job, and ignoring fatigue: returning to work after maternity leave is no easy task. In a book co-written with Isma Lassouani, Clémence Pagnon lifts the veil on "the 5th Trimester" (Solar), a crucial period of parenthood that is often overlooked.
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Every year, thousands of women return to work after giving birth. While some are delighted to be free of diapers, others regret not being able to stay with their baby. More often than not, this big return provokes apprehension. A period perceived as delicate, even trying, for these new mothers forced to play the tightrope walker between an office life put on hold for maternity leave and the emotional and logistical tsunami that the arrival of a newborn entails.
To help women cope, Clémence Pagnon and Isma Lassouani co-founded Issence, an agency dedicated to the challenges of parenthood at work, and published “The 5th trimester: living well when returning from maternity leave” (Solar, April 2025).
We know the three trimesters of pregnancy, to which is added a fourth, that of the three months postpartum. What does this "fifth trimester" correspond to?Clémence Pagnon It's the one who took it up again...
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