Translation
MARY stayed with her for nearly three months, then returned to her home.
Go to footnote numberParaphrase
THE [PREVIOUSLY] REBELLIOUS ONE stayed with her for almost three months and then returned home.
Footnotes
1: “returned to her home”
There is no way to be sure if Mary left before John was born, or after.
Did Mary Stay for the Birth of John?
We know she made the trip to Judea “in the sixth month” and that she stayed for 3 months. This would have brought her close to the time of the babies birth. That is all we know.
Surely she wanted to be there for that special event, but I don’t think her wishes were the most important factors in the decision about when she left. I believe the determining factors were the plans and timing of whatever people Mary traveled with to get back to Nazareth. We can safely assume that Mary was allowed to go to Judea only if she could travel in the company of people that her parents knew and trusted, and return with people that Zachariah and Elizabeth knew and trusted. The decisions of these other people determined when Mary would leave for Home regardless of whether or not Elizabeth had given birth to her baby.