changing maternity leave...

[nyldn]

I had told my employer that I would work up to 39 weeks as I've had a pretty easy pregnancy and have generally felt fine. At 31 weeks tmrw, I feel like I've been hit by a wall of exhaustion in the past week and I'm beginning to have trouble focusing to the same degree.

I know it's within my rights to move up my end date, but I get the distinct impression that it would not be appreciated as we'll be short staffed going into the summer holiday season. I think I'm going to need to end at 38 weeks though, even the thought of 7 more is killing me!

Has anyone been given a hard time about their end date? Maybe I'm worrying over nothing?

it is up to you when you start mat leave and I'm sure that no matter what grief they try to give you (hopefully they remain within the law on that front) that it will all be forgotten about by the time you return... seems like a big deal right now but when you're at home with your LO it will seem a million miles away.

you can change the start of your ML with 28 days notice so, yuo could write to them today, and be off in 4 weeks time.
if they are unhappy, I guess the outcome may well be you signed off sick, and then ML start enforced at 36 weeks?

I know with my work I have to give 8 weeks notice to be able to change my start date, anything less than that is completely down to head of services discretion. I work for a local authority. Ultimately it is not in the benefit of your service if you are not able to give 100% and thus they should let you go off xx

Presumably they will be arranging cover for you during your maternity leave, so they will just get someone in to cover you a couple of weeks earlier. I wouldn't worry too much, but just give them as much notice as you can.

How are your iron levels? I felt the same as you with my last pregnancy and I was ready to finish weeks earlier than I had originally planned as I was exhausted. It turns out I had lowish iron levels and even though they weren't low enough that I needed to take anything my midwife recommended I took some Spatone with fresh orange juice (with bits) each day.

It made a huge difference and within days I felt a million times better and almost back to normal. In the end it meant I was able to work right up until my due date which has given me the maximum amount of time off with my DD (although I'm still not ready to go back to work yet!)

If you do decide to try to keep working a bit longer perhaps you could try some Spatone, or something similar, to see if that makes a difference.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will discuss with my line manager. I don't feel that starting maternity at 38 weeks is unreasonable, but it could be that I can sort out just working from home the last week or two.

Have you got any annual leave left that you can use I will start mat leave at 39wks but actually finish at 35wks as using 4wks leave did SAME last time

I am supposed to be working to 38 weeks but I hit a wall last week at 31 weeks. Been to see my midwife today and everything seems ok. She has took my bloods to check my haemoglobin levels and referred me to a local clinic tomorrow for a full MOT so to speak. She seems to think its my iron.

Go get yourself checked out. Its better to be safe than sorry

I do have annual leave left but they are pushing me to save it for when I come back so I can ease back in...
I think they really don't want to fall behind with other people taking holiday end of July/Aug. Oh well, baby's coming whether they like it or not!!!
For all they know I can go into labour at 37 weeks, or earlier!