Maternity Pay: Getting pregnant on maternity leave

[Hannah9176]

So I appreciate I'm very early on but I've just found out I'm pregnant, think I'm about 4-5 weeks. I'm currently on maternity leave with my 6 month old DD not due to return until mid October (July-October would be unpaid).

My question is regarding work paid maternity leave pay, my maternity payments are calculated based on pay received from weeks 17-25 (I work in NHS). If all goes well with this pregnancy, those weeks will fall on my unpaid maternity leave - does that mean I will not be entitled to any paid leave from work? Should I be returning to work earlier to get maternity pay for the new baby?

I believe to get the pay you would need to go back during those weeks. I know how that works for teachers

Thank you! I thought that would be the case. Would be useful to actually be paid those 3 month too instead of ha ha g the time unpaid.