Even though you will not be functioning as a physician while you are on maternity leave, you may want to keep (loose) tabs on work since there might be an important meeting or event that you would like to attend. Hopefully this is an occasion where your baby will be welcome to join you. Of course, all non-critical meetings can and should wait. With respect to critical meetings, you can either take the baby to the meeting with you or arrange to attend the meeting via speakerphone from home if you (or your colleagues) feel more comfortable. If you are physically at a meeting with your infant, then the worst case scenario would be that you have to step out if the baby is too loud or fussy. Since infants are usually, but not always, welcome at social events for work such as holiday parties, it is a good idea to ask around first.

If you have an office, you could graciously allow others to use it while you are gone. It may also be fine for your colleagues to use your computer in your absence since you should be minimizing your time spent at work. However, if you go to work on a week day during your maternity leave, you run the risk of spending too much of your valuable leave time socializing at work, especially if you have the baby with you. If you sneak in to work on evenings and weekends, you can be more efficient since there are usually fewer people in the office during off hours. To maintain the option, but not the obligation, of working on your own projects, keep your own passwords.