Sensing and Overcoming Walls: Academic Mothers' Experiences Navigating Institutional Postpartum Leave Policies

ABSTRACT This article explores academic mothers' experiences navigating institutional leave policies through a feminist narrative methodology. The authors interviewed academic mothers who gave birth while employed as full‐time faculty at U.S. higher education institutions, centering their storied encounters with postpartum leave policies. The analysis reveals how mothers came up against fragmented information, unclear procedures, and poor communication between faculty affairs and HR offices, while simultaneously sensing what works through supportive leadership and creative navigation strategies. Despite institutions having policies, academic mothers consistently storied experiences of confusion and frustration as they navigated unaccommodating systems. The researchers found that successful navigation depends on mothers' individual advocacy, supportive administrators, and mothers' ability to creatively work around/within systemic failures. Overall, this research highlights the gap between having policies and enacting them effectively for whom policies are intended to benefit.