...to think this extended maternity leave bollocks just needs to stop.

[ScreamedAtTheMichaelangelo]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-54089754

I can't be the only one to think the campaign has run its course and just needs to stop?

Labouring women are still not allowed to be with their partners in anything but an hour of the actual birth....the phrase 'bigger fish to fry' can't help but spring to mind.....

Yeah I’m with you (and 50% of my mat leave was spent in lockdown). I got to spend that time bonding with my baby. Of course, I’d rather not have been in lockdown. But it was what it was, and also - I just don’t see how extra time off work would compensate me for the time I (and everyone else) lost.

I don’t know if anyone knows this but you can take up to 18 weeks in total of unpaid parental leave - 4 weeks a year and more at your employer’s discretion I think. So you’re free to ask for more unpaid leave if you like.

On a different but related topic I actually do think that mums and dads of premature and ill babies should be entitled to extended parental leave (always - unrelated to Covid I mean).

Unpaid leave to settle children into childcare and so on already exists: www.gov.uk/parental-leave/entitlement

No I got that @bigblondebimbo, thank you. I had a section 3 years ago and DH was there the whole time, in our own room - I was lucky on that front, and I just know how much he did. I am petrified of either making myself worse by doing too much, or suffering as I lie there immobil whilst my baby screams. Lets face it, midwives arent going to be on hand like DHs are?

I am just so fucking cross that this is the one thing that has seen next to no relaxations. My trust are still not allowing partners to scans/appts. Why can we go to a theme park, restaurant, pub etc but DH must leave his newborn baby and vulnerable wife immediately after birth? He has already been there! Just let him stay until we all leave.

I get that not everyone will have childcare for existing children.

Yes @Rae5647, times change. I’m embarrassed by the ingratitude of your generation for the generous benefits that mine fought so hard for you to have.

I’m very sorry for your health issues and have every sympathy but another three months at home won’t help with those. I’d definitely sign a petition to provide better postnatal healthcare because that’s definitely gone backwards since my day.

This is ridiculous, nothings been missed out on. Maternity leave is there so a parent can spent paid time off work bonding with their baby. Whether thay happened in lockdown or not, it happened. No ones owed anything.

Separation anxiety is pretty normal with most babies

No no, every child who sees its grandparents and go to baby yoga is happy to be left with anybody and doesn't need settling into nursery. Apparently.

I agree it's ridiculous. I've had my DD almost 2 months ago but unfortunately she is being cared for at hospital due to some serious condition. I couldn't care less how long my mat leave is/will be. On the plus side my husband has been working from home and very flexibly since March and is able to continue to work FT and still spend a number of hours with our daughter each day. That's one good thing from this covid nonsense. On the negative side none of our 3 other children have been allowed to visit their baby sister. It is what it is. The whole covid situation has had a lot of negative impact but will also have some positive impact. Everyone just needs to make the best of what they have got.

I had maternity leave during covid. Am also pregnant again. This is the most grabby and entitled thing I have ever heard. People have died and lost their jobs but mums want more paid leave to go and sing wind the fucking bobbin up at the local start centre. Get a grip.

I think this campaign would do a lot better if it could identify the specific ways in which additional mat leave would help people.

I am trying not to get all ‘who’s had it worse’ about this, I really am. But as someone who was working through lockdown with my children at home it is hands down the hardest parenting time I have ever been through. Really it has been horrendous. So it is hard to summon up that much sympathy when it feels like people who were on mat leave throughout that are asking for more mat leave because they missed out on making mummy friends and singing Wind The Bobbin Up at library rhyme time.

If it was a second child, I would have been hugely grateful to be on maternity leave during lockdown... Having to balance wfh with caring for a toddler almost killed me!

@Minimumstandard

Yes! I actually feel very lucky in some ways that the lockdown fell during my mat leave, because it spared us the hellish work/childcare issues that millions of people had to deal with. My DH and I have subsequently had to combine WFH with childcare a couple of times - on sickness days - and honestly, just a couple of days nearly killed us. Let alone 3 months. You’re a hero.

@VinylDetective please don’t lump all the younger generations in together, we aren’t all ungrateful for the things that we have right now. It’s insane to me the difference between my mothers and my pregnancies have been, from the care to the leave to the scans to the financial support. Some of us know how lucky we are!

Not to attend baby groups but more to mentally prepare themselves for going back to work or settle into their new lives as a parent.

But that’s what mat leave is for, surely? It is always difficult to go back to work after mat leave. And it’s been difficult for all parents to readjust to childcare and so on during the pandemic. Either none of us need extra support or all of us need it, it’s not just a ‘new mum’ thing.

As if the country can afford this? Do people not realise how many people are about to lose their jobs/ home etc?

I did have a baby during lockdown (which apparently qualifies me to comment) and I think it’s embarrassing and self indulgent nonsense. Sometimes life doesn’t go to plan, deal with it, move on.

Yes I agree what total rubbish. Seriously they have a long maternity leave and now want more. Get over themselves and stop being so precious.

@TheFormerPorpentinaScamander

Apparently bereavement leave has been extended to 2 weeks as of April this year. So a woman whose body has gone through pregnancy and labour, and the trauma of not having a baby at the end of it, gets a whole 2 weeks to recover! Wtf!!! (Unless I've misunderstood and its 2 weeks on top of mat leave? The gov website says if you've already started mat leave then you still get it. What about if you haven't started it?) Sorry. Gone off on a tangent there.

God that’s terrible. If you loose a baby after 24 weeks at my company, you get your full maternity leave paid for.

@Rae5647 - women have been having babies and carrying on for millennia. Seriously. It's what we do. I get a bit annoyed at the way some women portray themselves and other women for just having babies. You're not the first woman to have a baby, have nine months paid maternity leave and then go back to work.

@Rae5647

Have you had a baby during or shortly before the pandemic? If not, you can’t really sympathise.

Yes - all my maternity plans and hopes have been ruined by coronavirus. I’m not campaigning for extra leave though. It’s just not feasible.

@FilthyforFirth ive recently had a section, it really isn't that bad the midwives really do their upmost to fill the gap. At no point did I feel left or Unsupported.

I get it's horrible but hospitals are where the most vulnerable people are, there will be new mums who are clinically vulnerable who need as much protection as possible. Going to pubs, restaurants etc is optional, no one has to go.. going to hospital for treatments or to give birth for high risk mums isn't the more people there the more chance of passing on infection. It's inconvenient to most.. but it could literally be life saving to someone else x

So 'Currently, women can take a year's maternity leave and receive statutory pay for 39 weeks.' wow that's a lot longer than lockdown so really they are being entitled and silly.

I am glad this petition failed. There are more important things to consider

@Rae5647 - is 39 weeks of maternity leave not long enough then to 'adjust' .... 39 weeks! wow

Honestly I feel really sad for women having babies through the pandemic.

I was young mum and struggled massively with both birth trauma and post-natal depression. But I still had all the post-birth home visits from my midwife and then a health visitor where I was offered help and support, the children’s centre for a range of groups to meet other mums and breastfeeding support, other groups and classes for mum & baby, my parents and friends homes to visit with my baby, coffee shops and restaurants to meet up with friends- all of the stuff that new mums don’t have now.

Then of course there’s the issue of childbirth and all the choices being taken away from women left right and centre, even if it undermines their basic rights. And often not regularly reviewed or evidence-based but random rules and restrictions that differ from hospital to hospital.

Mental health is a massive issue for new mums, I can’t imagine how many must feel in the current situation.

@GoldenOmber

Not to attend baby groups but more to mentally prepare themselves for going back to work or settle into their new lives as a parent.

But that’s what mat leave is for, surely? It is always difficult to go back to work after mat leave. And it’s been difficult for all parents to readjust to childcare and so on during the pandemic. Either none of us need extra support or all of us need it, it’s not just a ‘new mum’ thing.

Arguably, I'd say the parents who should have got extra support, were the ones who had to WFH or find a way to work shifts with dcs at home with no childcare at all. Surely people on parental leave have been more fortunate, in that, at least one person has been at home, receiving some pay and still have jobs to go back to, unlike many people who were furloughed. Yes, it would be lovely if we could give everyone who has lost out some extra support, but where would you even begin? And, whole we're at it, can those of us for whom grandparents helping out with childcare is just a fantasy, have some extra money off nursery fees? There are so many imbalances and perceived unfairness between parents. If we compensated everyone who feels hard done by, it would never end!

It is ridiculous and I say this as someone who had part of my mat leave during lockdown. I’ll say now that mat leave and not having the worry of juggling work and children was much, much, much easier than more pleasant. My baby didn’t know any different. My 4yo suffered much more. No-one has to go to baby classes and arguably babies were the children least affected by the lockdown period.

Bigger issues for me are the Cuts to the health visiting service, lack of support postnatally, partners being denied access to support pregnant woman, discrepancies with furlough and returning from mat leave, lack of specific guidance or consideration for baby groups. Those are all completely separate to an extra period of mat leave.