Maternity leave dates

[flowerfairy]

Can anyone help me please? I am 20 weeks atm and need to write to my emloyer to formally say when i will bbe starting my maternity leave. I'm a teacher and am hoping that i can manage to work up to Feb half term. However baby is due on the sat of the final weekend of half term. Therefore this is part of my statutory holiday. Can i put down that i would like my maternity leave to begin on the monday of the new half term, which could potentially be after the baby is born?
Or are you obliged to begin your maternity leave as soon as your baby is born, even if thisfalls with your annual holiday?

Does anyone know? TIA

I would check your LEAs maternity policy to make sure, but could you ask for mat leve to start on the first day of new term and if baby comes early then just start it earlier? I'm pretty sure you can move it earlier but not always push it back iyswim? Also I would think you need to start mat leave when the baby is born rather than after (though obviously you dont know this date in advance).
Sorry, not much help, but didnt want you to go unanswered.

I am currently a teacher on maternity leave and I think the rules say that if the baby is born before you start maternity leave that your leave starts then. So if you gave birth in February half-term your leave would start when the baby was born. One of the downsides of teaching mat leave is unlike some other companies, we do not get to take all our annual leave at the end of mat leave! My SIL is having 6 weeks before Christmas of paid leave and had two weeks before last Christmas therefore only having one unpaid month of the year, unlike my 3 months unpaid...