Perfect maternity leave?

[FawnFrenchieMum]

Posting here for traffic. Just did fun

If you were making the rules on Stat Maternity pay, what would be the best ideal package and why?

I think 12 months full pay for me. Any longer I’d be too out of touch with the work and company. Any less feels like I’m leaving them ‘too young.

I did go back to work after 6&9 months respectively with my too, basically due to pay (the package was increased between child one & two).

@Caspianberg

Does the us have a very low breastfeeding rate? Ds fed every 90ish mins until he was 9+ months

I had intended to breastfeed my daughter and tried really hard to do so, but unfortunately she was unable to do so for various reasons. It definitely would have been much harder to go back to work if I was breastfeeding. I was planning to pump at the office but I don't know how sustainable that would have been. I was a stay at home mom with my younger child, who did breastfeed.

I don't know the rates, but the need to go back to work when a baby is very young must impact them.

With my first I was ready to go back after about 6 months and it significantly helped my PND to return to work after 9 months and hand over some of the responsibility to nursery and share the housework drudgery with DP. With my second I could have happily have not gone back at all but I needed the separation and adult social side of work - I stayed off for about 13 months in the end and was happy with that. My employers paid me quite well but I realise that's not the same for everyone.

[quote JanuaryPinks]@Anonymous48 you said it was no big deal for you returning to work after 8 weeks, but how do you think it was for your baby? I appreciate you didn’t have a choice, but in an ideal world, don’t you think your baby would have benefited from more time with you? Neither of my children would even let me put them down or hand them to their dad at 8 weeks.[/quote]
Yes. I already said that in an ideal world I would have been able to stay home longer and I wish I had been able to. I didn't say I thought returning to work at 8 weeks was ideal! Just that it was feasible. Whether my baby would have benefitted from more time with me rather than her excellent childminder, I can't say, but I would have preferred it.

@PumpkinPie2016

6 weeks is shocking in my opinion! I had a long labour and emergency c-section. There's no way I could have returned to work after 6 weeks

I would say ideal would be 12 months. I went back when my son was 10 months and it was fine.

Mainly though, I would like to see greater paternity leave for the father (or other parent). My husband got 2 weeks which really isn't long at all and I would have liked to have him around for longer.

Where I worked you would have gotten 8 weeks if you had had a C section, because of course the recovery time is longer.

It should be pro rated to salary not necessarily full pay. And shouldn't start until baby is discharged from hospital so captures those that might be in NICU several months.
And only for 6 months.

Any additional burden on employers just makes them less likely to employ women - we can't have it all as much as we'd like to think we can/should

Personally I don't see the need to have fathers leave being 6-12 months - really he'd just have got in my way - I breastfed so what help would he be really? I don't see any problem with current system where you can transfer remaining SMP to the father if the mother returns early

Childcare should be capped/subsidised like it is in Europe. Parents of multiples should get more subsidy (I know I have a vested interest in that one! 😉)

Child benefit higher charge should be made more fair - it should be £100k joint income not £50k sole income. And it should rise with inflation.

All childcare providers should be made to sign up to the tax free childcare account - it shouldn't be optional and OFSTED acceptance should be dependent on it

Good to know, thank you

Too late for me as I'm about to go off with my second, and we will use SPL again. But appreciate we are lucky to be able to use it at all.

Little tip for anyone wanting to use as much SPL as possible, read your partner's policy and see whether it says they are entitled to 'leave that the mother does not take as maternity leave'. If it says that, you should switch your leave from maternity leave to SPL. Then you're not technically using maternity leave, so he will be entitled to more.

Sorry, the above was in response to @Useranon1

I think the current system is OK, maybe the SMP rate should be increased.
I'd rather see more provisions for later on in a child's life, like paid emergency parental leave and subsidised childcare.

I breastfed so what help would he be really? so you did nothing with your multiples for 6 months except feed them? Didn't need ones bum changing or burping or cuddling whilst the other one fed or puked? Didn't play or interact with them, bath them or take them out? Never needed stuff doing whilst stuck under several kids?
I think it's pretty sad that dad's are relegated to "well he has no breasts so he isn't needed"

@babyjellyfish

12 months full pay to be split between the parents, on the proviso that if the parents are living together 3 months is reserved for the father on a use it or lose it basis.

Proper paternity leave can be so beneficial for fathers and children, and I think it is good for the parents' relationship for the father to understand just how hard work it is to look after a baby all day. It also means he gets used to full-time parenting and there's less chance of the family reverting to a dynamic where the mother is the default parent. Obviously this isn't necessarily feasible if the father isn't in the picture or the parents don't live together.

I also think the cost of childcare should be means tested (capped at a maximum but with lower income families paying less, so that mothers don't feel financially unable to go back to work).

We have a lot of this in Canada right now. Currently it's 17 weeks for mum, followed by 35 weeks or 40 weeks if the parents are sharing it (a use it or lose it to encourage fathers to take 5 weeks). Either parent can take this 35-40 weeks. This is at 55% pay (but is capped, but then many employers top it up. DP's is topped up to 93%).

There's also a newer option to take 18 months at less pay (same amounts but spread out over 18 instead of 12 months).

We also have a subsidy for childcare so it's basically means tested. When I was a single mum I paid zero for DS's £800 a month childcare, now I pay for it as DP and I are common law and higher earners.

Top of my list would be the absence of bad weather, however long it was. A year seems about right.

Yes @JanuaryPinks, that was the point I was making but was disregarded by someone else.

@MummyMe87

I couldn’t have gone back to work at 8weeks, I had stitches that didn’t dissolve until about 14weeks post birth and my baby breastfeed around the clock very very frequently until 9months, reducing a bit afterwards enough for me to go back to work at 12months. Plus I was utterly exhausted with a baby who didn’t believe in sleep

It's the cultural norm tho, you cna either afford to quit or you're back pretty quick. If that's what everyone does and you can't afford to not work then you do it because that's normal. On you might have to be signed off sick if you're recovering still but that's what happens when you've got Healthcare to pay for and it's not a welfare state

@gorseinon28

Top of my list would be the absence of bad weather, however long it was. A year seems about right.

Can I add the absence of a world wide pandemic too

@SleepingStandingUp

I breastfed so what help would he be really? so you did nothing with your multiples for 6 months except feed them? Didn't need ones bum changing or burping or cuddling whilst the other one fed or puked? Didn't play or interact with them, bath them or take them out? Never needed stuff doing whilst stuck under several kids? I think it's pretty sad that dad's are relegated to "well he has no breasts so he isn't needed"

Bonetiredwithtwins regularly turns up to tell women mat leave should be easy, and women shouldn’t need sleep or maybe that there is something wrong with them if they aren’t getting enough and you’re not doing a good job if you need help overnights from a partner.

SMP should be based on your salary. Our combined salary is similar to that of my brother and his wife but because DH and I earn similar amounts (as opposed to him being the higher earner like my brother is) we end up being worse off. My mortgage provider doesn’t give me a mortgage based on SMP nor does it give two hoots. Obviously ideal would 100% until childcare kicks in. Either that means funding before 3 or SMP until then. I’d before childcare funding I think. But I could manage on 80%.

@FinallyGotAnIPhone

12 months full pay is all very well and good but who would fund this? My employer topped up SMP for 6 or 9 months I can’t quite remember, but it’s a huge global company. I imagine for many companies (what about really small businesses eg who might also need to find a replacement to cover someone on mat leave), this isn’t viable.

Which is why I said for fun as it’s not realistically going to happen.

However I don’t think you should be penalised for working for a small company. Maybe there needs to be different levels of government support based on company size, so multi million companies pay full Mat Pay, medium pay 50% and small is paid by the government (as SMP is now)