AIBU short maternity leave

[UnicornAndSparkles]

AIBU to consider a very short maternity leave with DC2?

With DC1 I took two years out of work. Since then I've started a great job, well paid and flexible, 3days a week, with a good work life balance. The catch is that its 6-12 month contracts. My current contract expires end of March 2021 and my boss has said she is hoping to extend it to December 2021. The extension would be in place 3 months prior to the end of my current contract, so end of this year. Trouble is I'm 11 weeks pregant and due in April. There is no way my boss would extend my contract if she knew as effectively I'd be on maternity leave for the whole of the extension. So either I tell her after my 12 wk scan and accept that my job will end in March and I'll be eligible for zero maternity pay, or I agree to a minimal maternity leave, say 4 weeks, and hope she agrees to extend on that basis, perhaps on a 2 day a week contract. Ive worked for the company on and off for 5 years. There is no guarantee I could walk back into my role, or any role, if I were to not continue my contract after March 2021. There is guarentee that I would be offered another role if, say, I took a year off.

Im entirely able to WFH and this arrangement would be dependant on family helping with looking after DC2 for the 14h a week I would be working. DC1 would be at school.

My partner has a well paid job but its unstable.

Obviously this wasn't a planned pregnancy so we weren't expecting to have this financial issue with partners' unstable income. We aren't eligible for benefits. We have savings but not an enormous amount and so keeping my relatively stable job for as long as possible is a real priority.

AIBU?
YABU = 4 weeks maternity leave is too little, you will need more time with DC2 before going back to work
YANBU = 4 weeks could work, if everything else (parental support etc) did

I went back after 2 months 20 hours a week, 16 in office and 4 from home. I had saved up holiday so I took off a month so actually I was at home for 3 months after the birth. The reason I went back was that I knew a new position (promotion) was coming up and I wanted to apply for it. So I got back just in time for them to post the ad.

My dh cut his hours to part time so he took care of dd while I went to work. I pumped milk in a cupboard during my break and put it in the fridge with a cool box to take home for dd the next day.

I loved going back and could probably have gone back after 2 months. 4 weeks would have probably been too early though. I still couldn't really walk properly at 4 weeks and was a sweaty mess leaking from all holes. Hormones were still all over the place and I was coming to terms with a gruesome birth.

Some babies just seem to shoot out and the mums bounce back like an elastic band. You would be banking on everything running smoothly if you planned to go back so early. Plus you might not be able to work until your due date if you have complications that mean a long hospital stay before the birth.

Any way you can save up some holiday to add some extra time?

Still, there will always be other jobs, so if it doesn't work out you could combine a longer maternity leave with a job hunt.

I could still barely walk at 4 weeks 🤣

See the info under "I am on a fixed term or temporary contract. Can I still go on maternity leave?"
workingfamilies.org.uk/articles/maternity-leave-for-employees/

As long as you work past the qualifying week you are eligible for SMP.

I quit a job a month before dc2 and they still had to pay me maternity though I did not get the enhanced rate.

@Crunchymum try the second option.

The OP sounds like she is working on fixed-term contracts.

@RedMarauder

I totally misunderstood what you meant.

Thanks @AnotherEmma, thats really helpful.

Im torn though because even though I know a failure to renew my contract would solely be down to my pregnancy, im unsure how I would prove this, or whether the company would have to prove they weren't discriminating. They would just come up with a "the budget isn't there" excuse and palm my workload off on other team members.

Might be worth a quick call to Maternity Action, I hear good things about their helpline.

You might be pleasantly surprised by your employer and they might agree to a 6 month gap in your contracts, you never know. If you could negotiate 6 months or so that'd be a lot better than 4 weeks (which is far too short IMO).

They won't even lose out financially when you're between contracts (on mat leave) because even though they'll have to pay you SMP they can claim it back from the government.

Should be doable if WFH and only a few days a week. May even be beneficial for your mental health to be back into work and out of baby mode for a bit every week. Sure, employers can't discriminate, but they do and there's next to nothing you can do about it especially if you want to get work from them in the future. They may surprise you and let you take off even more time.