Two categories of concerns emerged after participants were asked about worries about returning to work. These include professional and personal.

• Personal concerns

Two participants showed zero concern. In both cases, they were not concerned because of the excellent support structure. Some other five participants shoed several personal matters; therefore, several code themes were acknowledged as discussed below:

Mother bond with baby:

” I will lose the bond with my baby since I will not be the primary caregiver.”

Healthiness:

” My baby might get sick since I would give a lot of medication.”

• Professional concerns

Three women showed no professional concern since their babies filled their minds; therefore, they could opt to quit work in the first week.

Four women showed professional concerns. Therefore, two open codes themes were acknowledged, namely: Insecurity and performance.

Insecurity:

“Am I still valuable to the company?”

Performance:

“My performance might not be the best anymore.”

• Stress

Three participants showed that they experienced work-related stress while on maternity leave, while three denied it. Feeling guilty by not working was the primary reason for this stress. The following is the experience described by participants:

“…I was filled with guilt for not working.”

4.1.1

The three axial codes: challenges, treatment, and experience, relates to a particular coding theme.

Experience

Experience is theme participants experience after a return to work from maternity and how difficult they get it.

• Experience after return to work

Four women have a positive return to work experience, while three women have a negative return to work experience.

Positive

“…Being back to work is so enjoyable.”

Negative

” I almost quit in the first week because I constantly think about my child.”

The majority of the women rated return to work difficult despite many of them giving a positive light. Many faced difficulties in the first weeks but not last for long. They gave experience in the following regard:

:

Difficult

“…so hard in the beginning.”

Easy

“…it was so simple.”

Challenges

Challenges associated with adjusting to work after maternity is conveyed in this theme.

Three of the women interviewed experienced no challenges in coping with their work. One woman claimed to have lost interest and therefore faced no challenge while three of the remaining participants experienced difficulties in dealing with tasks.  Concentration, expressing milk, and time are the principal open codes. Some responses include the following:

” I had to express my milk every two hours.”

Treatment

This theme relates to whether the participants were treated differently upon their return to work.

Four participants said they were not treated differently, and three said they were treated differently. Among these three participants’ responses, one was negative, while the other.

Two were treated differently but in a positive way.        Participant responses in this regard include:

“Yes, I was treated differently, and comments were made that I had too much on my plate.”