Working, maternity leave and small age gaps

[Muggymuggymugmug]

Currently on maternity leave and have fallen pregnant again.

I’ll be returning to work at about 21 weeks pregnant if everything goes OK with the pregnancy.

I feel like a crap employee for going on maternity leave again so soon. Thing is, we might want a third child and I’d like a smallish age gap.

I don’t want to annoy work but at the same time, I don’t want to put having a family on hold. I’d quite like the baby stage done with as soon as I can.

Thoughts?

@stucknoue jeez I really hope your female colleagues don't ever come to you for advice on Mat leave. Outrageous response.

OP I was promoted in work while pregnant and worried about telling new my manager as would only be in the new role for a few months before going on leave. I checked in with HR first who said it was absolutely ok and told me not to worry in the slightest. New manager also A ok about it

Try not to worry. Be a shame to possibly spoil the rest of your current Mat leave worrying about it. Pregnancy discrimination of any kind is an absolute no-no so I'd imagine your employers will no better than to give you any grief over it

Not back to back but I literally just returned to work, got pregnant again immediately and finished for mat leave about 9 months later. Nobody was bothered and I still qualified for everything. I am now pregnant again (ooh naughty me having a third lot of mat leave...) and there will be about 20 months between my last mat leave and this one. Again, nobody is bothered.

What helps is that I've been in the job nearly 15 years, over a decade before I had any kids, so they clearly can't question my commitment. It's also a massive company so they are hardly bankrupted by my mat leave and to be honest, you have to live your life how it suits you. My work don't really give a shit about me, so why should I worry?

Do your homework about qualifying periods etc, I would tell them before you go back personally, but otherwise don't worry about it and enjoy your pregnancy.

@itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted I've read it and it mentions no such thing about a third maternity leave. All it says is that you have the right to return to exactly the same job if your mat leave is 26 weeks or less, or a suitable alternative job where terms and conditions are not substantially less favourable if your mat leave is more than that. It also states this in their Q+As:

"Am I entitled to more maternity leave for my new pregnancy?
Yes, you are entitled to a further period of up to 52 weeks’ maternity leave for your new pregnancy. It does not matter how many periods of maternity leave you have taken or whether they overlap or not."

Luckily the law re discriminating against pregnant women doesn't accommodate subjective views of what some people think is 'cheeky', otherwise maternity leave wouldn't be a thing at all.

@chamenanged
If you don't return to work after maternity leave and go straight in to more maternity leave you will only have the right to return to the same job if it is reasonable practical to do so

Yeah, but that's still the case even if you only ever have one maternity leave if it's over 26 weeks. It has nothing to do with consecution. Where you don't have the right to come back to exactly the same job, you do have the right to come back to a suitable alternative job with no substantially less favourable conditions. That will always be the case no matter how many maternity leaves you take - there isn't some set of even lesser rights that comes with a third maternity leave.

I managed someone who returned fit her first ML 24 weeks pg with her second baby. She only came back part time - for 2 months. I just kept on her maternity cover.

Thanks again all.

@AllFourOfThem - I’m sorry for your loss

I’m a bit confused as to when I have to go back!

I was going to go back when DD is 8 months old (then use holiday so I’ll go back when she’s 8.5 months). That’s when my SMP stops.

So I went on maternity leave at the beginning of February (She ended up coming very late) so I was going to originally go back beginning of November & use holiday to mid November.

I think this baby is due 19th March. So when do I have to come back? I know that being on maternity leave is still counted as qualifying period but obviously I’d like to still get SMP.

You would usually need to end your maternity leave and return to work at 17 weeks pregnant in order to do your eight qualifying weeks to get SMP. Mat leave counts as a qualifying period for continuous service but not for SMP.

If you have accrued annual leave then you could officially return to work at 17 weeks but use annual leave to stay off a bit longer. You need to sit down with a calendar and work it out, before double-checking with your employer that they don’t have any other policies in place. The Work Smart link that you posted upthread is pretty clear, and Maternity Action are a good source of advice.

@Muggymuggymugmug

I found the below tool really useful for calculating exact dates for my Mat leave

www.timeanddate.com/date/weeknumber.html

AllFourOfThem all you're doing is taking my comment out of context and trying to make me the bad guy. If you're not interested in a conversation or my input then don't tag me...simple.