On Maternity and Pregnant again.

[Loobylu12]

Hi all

I'm new to this group so please excuse me if I ramble on. I'm currently on Maternity and have a 6 month old baby. I am now 11 weeks pregnant. We are over the moon with this but I am dreading telling my employer. Don't really know why as she is lovely but it works out I will be back at work 2/3 months before leaving again. Has anyone else gone through this or any advice I would appreciate this please. Thanks in advance.

Just tell your employer ASAP. It's actually more common than you think for this to happen. You retain the same rights as anyone else.

You may not even need to go back if you're already 11 weeks and are taking the full 12 months you're entitled to.

Congratulations!

Thank you for replying. I will be telling her as soon as I have my 1st scan midwife says should be between 11 and 14 weeks. I will be taking the same 9 months. Thank you again for the reply I feel much better about this.

This happens quite a bit where I work. The only thing to be aware of is that if you haven't been earning during qualifying period (last pay date before 15th week of due date) then you don't get 90% of pay and you may get SMP from Gov instead of employer but all rights remain the same

Congratulations!

It may (or may not) be a bit of a pita for work but in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter. You are bringing another life into the world and work will carry on regardless. You have nothing to feel bad about Work would need to cover you whether you're off sooner or later.

This happened to me. I went back to work when ds1 was 13 months old but I was already pregnant. I went back for 4 months in the end before Leaving again. You do have all the same rights as before BUT I seem to remember reading something about having to go Back to work even for just a short time to qualify for maternity pay- could be worth checking. Also some companies I think stipulate how long you have to be back for before leaving again- but this is only if they are paying you over and above the statutory maternity pay. Mine weren't so it wasn't an issue. I also didn't tell my boss til I was about 19 weeks because I had complications and i wanted to make sure they were resolved before coming clean.

Chattycat, "coming clean"? You hadn't committed a crime!

I don't have to go back... my kids are only a year apart. I ran 2 maternity leaves together, also got all my paid holidays. You need to be earning a minimum to claim SMP, and your current SMP counts as earnings.
I worked in payroll so I "helpfully" did all the calcs for my boss so he couldn't claim otherwise!

Thank you everyone for replying to me. I don't feel as bad now. Dontneedausername can I just ask what's the minimum you need to earn to be entitled to smp?

I went back to work pregnant with DC2, my public sector (might make a difference) employers were fine with it. Employers are not allowed to take prejudice. In my case I was only able to have 6 months mat leave (pre 2007) and think my employers thought I was getting everything out of the way so to speak !

£112 a week by the looks of it :)

www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/statutory-maternity-pay-how-it-worked-out

Congratulations OP!
I did this too and love my small age gap. Maternity action do a factsheet about being pregnant on maternity leave that's useful.
If you return or take annual leave or paid KIT days during your qualifying weeks you should earn enough to qualify for maternity leave again.
You don't have to tell your employer now - I waited until after 20 week scan. It's up to you what you think best on that front.

Just contact your manager and admit what has happened. They can't sack you, whatever provisions they have put in place for your first period of maternity leave they will have to do again for your next.

Be aware though that when you eventually do go back, it will be even more of a shock to your system!

One of my dear colleagues did exactly the same. She ended up with an Oct baby the first time and a December the following year. Tbf, it did mean we had two temps over that period which was hard (as dear colleague was so good at her job), but we survived. You are certainly not the first and won't be the last. My manager did admit to me however that she was pleased she knew sooner rather than later.

Thanks guys. I am worried that when I go back before going off again they might try to push me through the door. But I know what your saying gincident when I do go back it will be a shock to the system. I'm worried too when I do go back afterwards they might show me the door then. Sorry guys do going on.

My midwife was sound about it too. I'll be happy once I've had my scan and then told my employer can look forward to it. Thank you.