enforcing maternity leave early with twins?

[lucya1980]

hi, i am expecting twins, week 40 will be 22oct. I have just heard that maternity leave is no longer enforced at 29 weeks but now at 36 weeks. I work as a nurse in NHS and as im expecting twins, think i will have to stop work quite early. However wondering if it is a good idea to have some of this as sick leave. ( think dr may recomend i go of sick early) raather than take earlier maternity leave and use all my holidays, so ill be able to spend longer with them after they are born?

I was signed off by my Dr at 29 weeks with my twins because I was just too tired to work,I'm a teacher. I was signed off for five weeks until my maternity leave started. I know other mothers of twins who carried on working for much longer but I haven't ever heard of maternity leave being enforced.

With dd1 who was singleton I worked right up to 37 weeks.

Never heard of enforced maternity leave - I assume this is a NHS thing?

You will (presumably) only be allowed to take it as sick if your Dr does sign you off - but if he does then great. Even then will there be a point where being signed off sick automatically triggers maternity leave (where I work I think it might have been 35wks?).

However you do it, I would recommend finishing as early as possible. I finished at 28 weeks and it wasn't a moment too soon.

NHS is the same as any where else. Up till 36 weeks you can be off sick without it triggering your maternity leave. So you should be able to be signed off at whatever point medical opinion recommends and then go on maternity leave at 36 weeks.

thanks for your info. What i ment by enforced, is that if you were of sick( dr recomended or not) that is pregnancy related then they would class it as maternity leave if it were after 29 weekspregnant. It seems as tho the consencus is now that is 36 weeks, which is great

If you're sick in the four weeks prior to your due date it will trigger maternity leave. But with twins I shouldn't think you'll still at work by then.

Welcome to the roller coaster of twindom

HI there, just to add my NHS experience. I was signed off for 12 weeks then the mat leave kicked in 4 weeks before due date!. Bear in mind with twins that they may come early. I had a C-section (planned) at 38 weeks which meant that I only used 2 weeks of Mat leave before they were born (official due date being 40 weeks).
Good Luck!