Time to think
On maternity leave a young mother, never a dull moment: often a tight schedule, while planning anything definite is extremely difficult, because much depends on the kid mode. However, during pregnancy and child care a woman has a wonderful opportunity to think and analyze my life. The birth of the crumbs, of course, changes the life of parents. It's time to prioritize and figure out what you want in the future.
Listen to your feelings, consider how you would like to live. Quite possibly, after the birth of a baby career is falling by the wayside, and now you want to give more time to family and your Hobbies. The most important thing is not to dive into maternal care. Be sure to take the time to your own development, read more, the planned new goals.
Engage in a hobby that is constantly postponed. It's possible in the future it will be able to bring you income.
To remain in the ranks
There are many successful women, for whom existing work - a favorite thing of all life. They are not going to change anything and expect a prompt return to their communities. In this case, the decree may be perceived as an annoying pause where they are at risk to drop out from working life and put your career at risk. That is why they need to "remain in the ranks" even on leave to care for a child.
If your situation is one of those, use maternity leave to the max. Keep in touch with your team, study the literature of the profession. Discuss with the management the opportunity to work remotely or run your own projects from home. With modern resources, it's easy to do.
If work brings you a good income and pleasure, you will find it time even with the baby. Consider welfare or find a helper for 2-3 hours a day to devote this time to their cases.
Other work
There are many ways to earn in the decree. One of the best solutions is to find remote work in the network depending on your skills. Plenty of opportunities: programming, writing, design, and implementation of the course, information services, accounting.
Start a new business even during pregnancy. Get a blog and social media groups that will help you further services. Yes, at first you are unlikely to get to spend part lot of time and effort. But gradually you learn to do everything fast enough and get a good income from the comfort of home.