Teaching, motherhood and mental health: how can we support parent-teachers?

When it comes to stressful professions, education is often found to be high up the list in cross-industry studies.  And indeed, Education Support’s 2024 Teacher Wellbeing Index reports that student behaviour, negative interactions with parents and lack of provision for SEND students have all contributed to consistently high levels of stress across the teaching profession in the last year.

What happens, then when these stressed teachers, are also working mothers, who are 40% more stressed than colleagues without children? Does this intersectionality of identities lead to increased burnout and attrition of mother-teachers, or does the intense joy and fulfilment of both roles make for a worthy trade off when life gets tough?

Motherhood, mental health and attrition

Women aged 30-39 make up the largest group of teachers to leave the profession every year and – as revealed by the 2024 Missing Mothers report from The New Britain Project and The MTPT Project – motherhood is a significant push factor.  Poor mental health and wellbeing contributed to the decision to leave teaching for 57% of this demographic.  This is an increase from 50% in 2018 when the Missing Mother’s predecessor study was conducted.

In too many cases, we are seeing the combination of the pressures of a teaching career and the demands of motherhood forcing women to make the choice between their own mental health and their jobs.

The combination of these pressures was commented on consistently in the qualitative interviews conducted both in 2018 and 2024:

"I feel like I’m a teacher, a social worker, child psychologist, family support worker as well as trying to teach full time and be a mum."
Primary middle leader, 2024 Missing Mothers report

"I was anxious to get my children to bed at nighttime so I could get on with me work because I’d have to be up really early the next morning… It would then make me feel bad going in the next day. It just started to make me feel like not a very good teacher, and not a very good mum."
Secondary middle leader, 2018 predecessor study

A more complex picture

Despite these figures, a 2024 survey from Edurio found that ‘Staff who are parents report higher levels of overall wellbeing, lower levels of stress, workload, and are more likely to report feeling excited by their work. However, they do report slightly lower quality of sleep.’

To gain an accurate understanding of teacher-parents’ mental health, therefore, we must accept that the picture is not simple.  Rather, there is great complexity and nuance contributing to their sense of wellbeing.

In both 2018 and 2024, the Missing Mothers report found that there was a strong sense of positive wellbeing associated with the teacher identity:

"My husband commented that when I went back to work after maternity leave, he was like, ‘you are really the most excited that I’ve seen about anything before in the last four of five months. I haven’t seen you so enthused about anything."
Secondary middle leader, 2018 predecessor study

This was even the case for colleagues who had decided to leave:

"I loved teaching for many years. It was just the best job being around children all the time, absolutely great. And then I had my own children.”"
Primary teacher, 2024 Missing Mothers report

Relationships with the mother identity were also revealed to be far from straightforward – simultaneously positive, negative, harmonious, and yet also in conflict with the teacher identity:

"Staying home with my children, and especially my youngest wouldn’t exactly be much fun. I’m not someone who can stay at home with my child: I have to be working for my mental health."
Secondary teacher, 2018 predecessor study

“I find motherhood very rewarding but your reward centres aren’t hit in the same way. You don’t see the immediate difference for the amount of work that you put in. I like to feel praised, and I like to feel that what I am doing makes a difference and is having an impact.”
Secondary teacher, 2018 predecessor study

Maternal mental health

This relationship between identity and mental health is particularly complex during the pregnancy, maternity leave and immediate return to work period where the additional factor of perinatal mental health, fluctuating hormones and sleep deprivation can put colleagues at significant risk of mental health crises. 

More than a quarter of mothers suffer from perinatal mental health conditions, and common mental disorders such as depression or anxiety, and teachers are not immune to this.  Since the definition of the perinatal period spans from three months prior to conception to two years post-birth, almost all teachers will return to work within this risk period.

Indeed, in The MTPT Project’s 2018 study, 8% of participants who had left the profession aged 30-39, and 10% of those who stayed, reported an official diagnosis of post-natal depression or anxiety.  At times, this was exacerbated by the return to work.  However, for some, stepping away from the mother-identity when returning the classroom contributed to the healing process.

Sacrifice, stagnation and stress

When children are older, the 2024 and 2018 studies indicated two further conflicts when it came to mother-teachers’ wellbeing.

Firstly, mothers felt as if the obligation to compromise on their professional roles to fulfil their parenting responsibilities resulted in dissatisfaction at work.  Penalties associated with part-time hours, unmet professional development needs, and limited occupational mobility all lead to stagnation.  And yet – because the daily requirements of teaching are familiar and routine for experienced colleagues – they sacrifice ambition and progression in favour of a stable wage and job that fits around family life.

Even when the ease of a humdrum routine is absent, and workload and stress levels are high, financial security was still the primary reason that women aged 30-39 remained in teaching (chosen by 74% of participants in the 2018 study). Changing careers was associated by participants with a salary reduction, and the prospect of such a big change with uncertainty and overwhelm:

"I have looked before at doing other things and I don’t think I would get paid as much as I do on the post that I am in at the moment. It would mean having to retrain and start at the bottom again, and for a number of years then my salary would really drop."
Secondary Middle Leader, 2018 predecessor study

In many cases, however, women aged 30-39 who remained in the profession reported high levels of job satisfaction congruent with the findings in the Edurio report:

"I get a huge amount of job satisfaction. If I won the lottery, I would not leave my job.  I love my job."
Primary Senior Leader, 2018 predecessor study

"Even on the hardest day in teaching, I get so much in terms of my self-esteem and my general mental health from interacting with that many people on a day to day basis, and seeing the human impact of the work that I do."
Secondary Middle Leader, 2018 predecessor study

 

Supporting parent-teachers 

For school leaders keen to create environments that support the wellbeing of parent-teachers, there are both quick-fix and more systemic actions that can be taken:

Maternity transition support

Given its complexity, improved understanding of, and support over the perinatal period can be hugely helpful to staff.

Explore what’s already available as part of The MTPT Project’s “Cradle to Classroom” programme of maternity transition support, and consider a specific return to work policy for your setting.

Flexible school cultures

Flexible working makes a huge difference to parent-staff.  Wherever possible, say yes to formal flexible and part-time working requests all the way up to leadership level.  This suite of webinars from the DfE’s FWAMS programme provides really practical training and ideas.

The Missing Mothers report showed that ad hoc flexibility was as important – if not more important – to staff than these formal arrangements. Send the message loud and clear to your teams: when they need a little bit of wriggle room to attend important events, deal with emergencies, or fit the logistics of their personal life around work, this will be granted in your school.

You can also check out this Flexible Working in schools guide by Education Support.

Workload reduction

We can’t ignore the prevalence of workload that turns up repeatedly in conversations around teacher wellbeing. When workload is high, and colleagues are returning home to a second full time job of parenting, something inevitably has to give.

What do staff tell you would make a huge difference to their workload in your setting, and what are the first steps to working smarter, even if you can’t tackle everything all at once?

Improved and equal parental leave and pay

Maternity and paternity pay for teachers and support staff is woefully poor in comparison to other graduate professions. Not only does this add financial pressures to periods of maternity leave, which can already be emotionally fraught, it also throws new fathers and non-birthing partners back into work after just two weeks with their new babies.  This simply isn’t good enough.

At MAT and local authority level, we have the power to improve our parental leave and pay policies.  Increasing and equalising would allow staff to spend more time at home with their babies and boost mental health outcomes for both parents and baby.

In upcoming blogs, I look forward to sharing the voices of fathers in our MTPT Project community, and the concrete strategies we can implement to achieve greater equality amongst working parents in the education sector.

Education Support helpline

If you are struggling, we’re here to help. When you call you’ll talk to a qualified counsellor. We’ll offer you free, immediate, confidential emotional support.

Don’t wait for a crisis to call: 08000 562 561

Emma Sheppard is the Founder of The MTPT Project, the UK’s charity for parent-teachers.  A former English teacher and Lead Practitioner, she is now the UK’s expert on the motherhood penalty in education. In 2024, Emma co-authored the Missing Mothers Report with The New Britain Project, outlining the importance of working mothers to solving our current recruitment and retention crisis.