For many women who choose to take time off work to have a baby, maternity leave can be something of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it means that you’re able to spend precious time bonding with the newest, tiniest person in your life – not to mention recovering from the physical strain of pregnancy and childbirth.

At the same time, being transplanted from the world of deadlines and after-work drinks into an uncharted landscape of pureed food and mother-and-baby groups can sometimes be isolating and intimidating. And the thought that someone else is blithely doing your job while you’re at home trying to figure out how to work a breast pump? That can be downright unsettling (so unsettling, in fact, that the concept was enough to power recent BBC One psychological thriller The Replacement).

It’s a predicament that Annie Mac understands only too well. The Radio 1 DJ, who recently took six months off to have her second child, says that she initially struggled with the fact that other people were covering her shows – to the point where she couldn’t bear to turn on the radio.

Annie Mac nails why maternity leave can be so difficult for many women