Uzoma Nwaogwugwu is part of the Havas Lynx Group’s insights and planning team. Uzoma has recently returned from maternity and has decided to move forward with the Lynx Family Support Programme. Uzoma has kindly shared her story on how the programme has impacted her to date.

Becoming a new parent is something you’re never really prepared for. There’s a number of things you find overwhelming right through from pregnancy to the birth. The first few days realising you now have to keep a small human alive having only slept for two hours at a time supported by all the other development stages they go through.

Luckily, it does get easier, and over time your parental instinct comes into play. Then, it hits you. As you just get in to the swing of parenting, work creeps back up on you, but that beautiful small human you’ve raised and love so dearly needs a place in a nursery which costs more than your mortgage each month.

The decision between going back to work full time vs. part time was something I thought about a lot, especially in the last month of my maternity leave.  It was something I toyed with, weighing out the financial impact, how much time I would get with my son and how fewer days could affect my career. Despite these initial thoughts, time with my son is far too precious and so I made the decision to go back to work four days a week.

I wasn’t aware of the Lynx Family Support Programme until I had the phone call to discuss my new working hours. You hear so many horror stories about how women are at a disadvantage when returning to work from maternity. But this programme has shown how much the Creative Lynx family value working mothers in the office. It sets the premise for equality in the work place, which is all you really crave when you go back.

To be treated the same as somebody who doesn’t have a child but to be provided with the flexibility that allows us to still see our children and spend valuable time with them. This benefit now means that I don’t need to worry about the difference in salary I would have experienced and that I get to spend extra time with my son which is extremely important at this stage as he grows and changes each and every day. It’s so rare for a company to provide something like this, and I am so grateful for the Creative Lynx Family to be offering this benefit. They have no idea how much this will impact my family over the next year. Thank you.