I think its different for each family

With DD1 I went back to work 1 weekend a fortnight and it wasn't soon enough, I needed the stimulation and think I might have had PND if I had stayed home longer. I eventually increased to 3 days a week

With DD I think it was around 8 months and went back 5 days a fortnight, working back up to 3 days a week

This time I am in a very lucky position that between paid maternity through work (18 weeks) Long Sevice (9 weeks) Annual leave (5 weeks) and PPL I will have 50 weeks paid leave so am planning to take a full year which will give the first couple of weeks of settling DD1 into year 1 and DD2 into kindy before I go back to 3 days a week. I can take up to 2 years off unpaid ML and then have 12months to adjust my hours before having to revert back to my pre maternity working contract or negotiate a new contract.

Im a nurse so Im currently working 2 afternnons during the week and every second weekend, my DD's go to family day care one afternoon, my mums the other and DH is home on weekends. Once the kids are all at school weekend work might be more difficualt but currently the extra pay from loadings makes it well worth it

I also have a very breastfeeding friendly work place. We can use a special staff room off the maternity ward to express and use the hospitals pumps, we also get an extra paid 30minute break per 8 hour shiftt to express or breastfeed until the child is 12 months old. I dont think I could have continued to breastfeed without this support