Introduction maternity leave is a constitutional right in Brazil, but the payment/benefits is restricted to women who contribute to the social security system. Although women represent half of the labor workforce around the world, they are still mostly responsible for family and child-rearing which compromises the process of return to work after birth.

Objective to understand the return to work after maternity leave from the perspectives of Brazilian working women.

Methods qualitative study with mothers that gave birth and return to work regardless of kind of job. Until now, four women have participated in online interviews following a validated script of open questions. Data analysis has been done simultaneously of data collected through thematic approach and the sample will be delimited by saturation. This research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Sao Carlos, Brazil (all ethical concerns have been respected).

Results return to work influenced the continuation of breastfeeding, including home office: ‘ I was in front of the computer and breastfeeding’. There is a duality when women talk about job and the care with the babies: ‘the good thing is that I manage to stay with him all the time [...] and at the same time it also becomes exhausting to stay at home for a long time’. Women report that the work was invaded by the needs of their children causing dissatisfaction and frustration with performance after returning: ‘I feel more encouraged to work [...] but my career is over, at least in the pandemic there is no way’, especially during pandemic with all day care centers closed.

Conclusion the burden of responsibility in caring for children falls on women impacting performance at work and also breastfeeding.