Maternal mental health in hospitality: We can’t keep ignoring it

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week 2026, led by the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership UK, marks “A Decade of Voices.”

Ten years of women speaking up.

Ten years of experiences being shared.

And yet, in hospitality, too many voices are still going unheard.

Let’s be clear on one thing.

Perinatal mental health issues affect 1 in 5 women.

Now layer that onto an industry built on long hours, physical demand, late finishes, unpredictable schedules, and a culture that still too often rewards pushing through rather than speaking up.

We have a problem.

The reality for women in hospitality

Hospitality is an incredible industry. It offers creativity, connection, and career progression. But it is not designed with motherhood in mind.

Pregnancy doesn’t pause service.

Postnatal recovery doesn’t align with shift patterns.

Sleep deprivation doesn’t sit well with 12 hour days on your feet.

And mental health? It’s often the last thing anyone talks about.

Because the reality of early motherhood isn’t just logistical, it’s deeply physical and emotional.

It’s returning to work with a body that doesn’t quite feel like your own.

It’s carrying full, aching breasts through a shift, trying to focus while your body is still in rhythm with feeding a baby who isn’t there.

It’s leaking through a uniform in the middle of service and hoping no one notices.

It’s the pull, the almost constant, instinctive yearning to be close to your child, while you’re expected to be fully present at work.

It’s exhaustion that goes beyond being tired.

It’s hormonal shifts you can’t control.

It’s navigating identity, from who you were, to who you are now.

And alongside all of that, there’s the pressure of reality.

The cost of childcare.

The need to earn.

The stress of finances tightening just as your world expands.

Women in hospitality are not just returning to work.

They’re returning while carrying all of this, often silently.

Add in the structural challenges:

• Physically demanding roles during pregnancy

• Limited flexibility in shift based environments

• Financial pressure to return to work early

• A lack of structured return to work pathways

• Guilt, both at home and at work

And then there’s the unspoken layer.

The fear that stepping back, even temporarily, might cost you your place in the industry.

We expect women to return as if nothing has changed, when in reality, everything has.

You’re not the same person you were before, and you shouldn’t have to pretend that you are.

My experience, and why it matters

I want to be clear, my experience is not the same as someone working front of house on a busy Saturday night or running a kitchen through peak service.

I’ve had flexibility. I’ve had autonomy. I’ve been able to shape my working hours.

And still, I struggled.

Pregnancy took a toll on my mental health in ways I didn’t expect.

There were moments of anxiety, exhaustion, and overwhelm that felt hard to articulate, let alone manage.

What I didn’t fully recognise at the time was that my first pregnancy had left a level of trauma that I carried into my second. It sat quietly in the background, shaping how I felt, how I coped, and how I experienced pregnancy the second time around.

It wasn’t until I spoke about it, properly and honestly, that things started to shift.

During my second pregnancy, I accessed counselling and CBT, and it made a real difference. Not overnight, not perfectly, but it gave me tools, language, and space to understand what I was feeling and why.

Support works.

But only if people can access it.

And that’s where the gap sits for so many in hospitality.

Because while I was able to find support, many aren’t. Whether that’s due to time, awareness, stigma, or access, too many people are left to navigate it alone.

At The Burnt Chef Project, we see this every day. Demand for support continues to grow, and it reinforces one thing.

Access to support shouldn’t depend on circumstance, role, or flexibility. It should be a given.

If that can happen with flexibility and support, we have to ask a bigger question.

What is it like for those who don’t have that privilege?

The data we can’t ignore

This isn’t just anecdotal.

• 1 in 5 women experience a perinatal mental health issue

• Suicide remains a leading cause of death for women in the year after childbirth in the UK

• Women are more likely than men to leave hospitality due to caring responsibilities

• A lack of flexible working is one of the biggest barriers to retention in the industry

And when women leave, the industry loses more than staff.

We lose experience.

We lose leadership.

We lose future talent.

A global picture: not all maternity is equal

Where you work in the world dramatically shapes your experience of motherhood.

In the UK, statutory maternity leave offers up to 52 weeks, but pay drops significantly after the first few months. For many, that’s simply not financially viable.

In the US, there is no federal requirement for paid maternity leave. Many women return to work within weeks.

In parts of Europe, more generous parental policies exist, but hospitality roles still struggle to implement flexibility at an operational level.

The gap isn’t just policy.

It’s how those policies translate into real working environments.

Because having maternity leave on paper is one thing.

Feeling supported, valued, and able to return to your role is another.

The cultural problem we don’t talk about enough

Hospitality has a resilience problem.

We celebrate toughness.

We normalise burnout.

We wear exhaustion like a badge of honour.

That culture doesn’t just impact mental health broadly.

It disproportionately affects women, particularly mothers.

Because motherhood already demands resilience.

Layer an unforgiving work culture on top, and something has to give.

Too often, it’s the individual.

So, what needs to change?

If we want to build a sustainable industry, this isn’t optional. It’s essential.

Here’s where businesses can start:

1. Normalise the conversation

Maternal mental health should not be a side note. Train managers to understand perinatal mental health, just as they would any other wellbeing issue.

2. Build flexible pathways

Not everyone can return full time, straight away. Create phased returns, job shares, or adjusted roles where possible.

3. Protect career progression

Taking maternity leave should not stall a career. Have clear development pathways that continue before, during, and after leave.

4. Train leaders properly

Line managers are often the make or break factor. Equip them with the tools to support conversations around pregnancy, return to work, and mental health.

5. Offer real support services

Access to therapy, coaching, or employee assistance programmes should be available and actively encouraged, not hidden in a handbook.

6. Rethink scheduling

This is one of the hardest, but most important. Where possible, offer predictable shifts, shorter rotations, or role adjustments.

This isn’t about helping women, it’s about fixing the system

We need to move away from the idea that women need to cope better or find balance.

The system needs to change.

Because when women are supported:

• Retention improves

• Team culture strengthens

• Leadership pipelines grow

• Businesses perform better

This is not just a wellbeing issue.

It’s a commercial one.

A decade of voices, now it’s time for action

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week has given us ten years of insight, stories, and lived

experience.

We don’t need more awareness alone.

We need action.

At The Burnt Chef Project, we’ve built our support services because we know what happens

when people don’t have somewhere to turn.

Hospitality has always been about people.

If we truly believe that, then we have to build an industry where motherhood isn’t a barrier, and mental health isn’t an afterthought.

Because behind every service, every shift, every business, there are people trying to balance

work, life, and, for many, motherhood.

And they deserve better.

If you’re a hospitality business ready to take action, start by looking at how you support your

people, not just in policy, but in practice.

Author

Emmy Webster

Marketing Director

The Burnt Chef Project