Our Take on Maternity Leave

Hi Napp Fam! 

We hope your May is off to a great start...  We wanted to fill you in on some of the behind the scenes this month, as we have had some exciting (and relatable) developments! If you follow us on Instagram, you already know that our cofounder Katie welcomed her first baby (Lyla pictured above) in October, and Claire has been running the ship on her own while she took maternity leave! We have learned so much through this process and we are so excited to approach our business with a new lens and perspective...and we thought it might be fun to share some of it along the way.

When it came time to talk about maternity leave, we were in the unique position of getting to decide for ourselves! No corporate policies to adhere to or vacation time needed......we had some new and challenging decisions to make. 

"So when we started imagining maternity leave I really thought that I wouldn't need too much time. I figured I would work while the baby napped, like I worked while my nanny babies napped for so many years! I really did not know what to expect or how wrong I was... plus childbirth is just so unpredictable, how could I have known! And we don't see a lot of good examples of what a good fair maternity leave looks like, so I assumed 6-12 weeks was normal because it was appropriate and fair. Now I see that it really does not make sense to just slap a timeline on it and assume it will work for the masses. Claire actually originally suggested taking some time before the baby, which was a great call, and then I suggested about 6 weeks after. Of course Lyla decided to come almost 2 weeks after the due date so that plan quickly needed to shift... queue the NICU stay and a tongue tie procedure at 6 weeks and by the time I was supposed to be coming back, I was still very much recovering. I am so grateful I was in control here with what I needed and what I was able to take. Claire is also the real MVP, always being more than willing to adjust as we figured it out...she had actually said that 6 weeks didn't seem like enough from the start but hey, I was ambitious!"

We’re feeling good about a 6 month maternity leave being our policy now and standing with some bigger companies like Amazon and Mastercard in doing better for families and women in post partum. As we are getting back into the swing of things we want you to know that we are here to support you in all the ways we can, from lending an ear to childcare.

We can’t wait to share more!

XO

KATIE & CLAIRE