Self-employed maternity leave

[WhenShallIShare]

If you’re self-employed and have a baby, how long did you take for maternity leave?

I’m pregnant with number 2 and due in March. I’m self-employed as a piano teacher and don’t know how long I’ll need to take. My first pregnancy I was employed as a teacher in school so took 10 months off but obviously I don’t have that luxury this time round.

Would love to know what your experiences of maternity leave when self employed have been. Thanks!

I was self-employed for my first mat leave and though employed, claimed mat allowance with my second as well (contract expired just before I would have been eligible for SMP). Both times I took a full year off. 9 months of paid maternity allowance and then a further 3 months unpaid.

In both cases, I'd finished projects/jobs before I started my mat leave, so I had no clients to attend to and no work waiting for me when I returned. Actually both times I sought out employment (rather than going back to self-employed) after, so there was no particular rush to return to work and start paying nursery. We could manage fine enough in the short term on dh's income.

Personally, I would take as long as possible and start saving now to make that happen.