Maternity Leave - advice?

[MummyD1725]

Hi all, I’m just looking for some advice really.
I’m 32 weeks pregnant (tomorrow) with baby girl number 2. I have an 8 year age gap as we’ve been struggling to conceive.
This time around, my pregnancy has been totally different and much harder (possibly due to my age)!
I’ve been suffering with SPD for the past few weeks which is taking its toll and the exhaustion & brain fog is real!
Up until 2 weeks ago, my employer hadn’t had any conversation with me about when my maternity is due to start, the most that they said was ‘we’ll discuss it early June’. I emailed them on week 30 and said I am really struggling physically & mentally, so would like to start it sooner rather than later. They came back and said I have to give 28 days notice if I want to bring it forward - but we hadn’t set a date! They said they assumed I’d be going early July as I’m due 05/08.
At my last midwife appointment, at the end of last week, midwife advised that I go on mat leave asap - my bp was elevated, slight show of protein in my urine and she said I don’t look well at all. She said if my employer doesn’t accept, I need to go to the gp and get signed off because of the effects the stress will have on my body! I went back and told my employer what she had advised and they’ve come back to me today to say they need me until 27th June - another 3 weeks! Now, they’ve lowered my hours so I’m only doing 2-3 days a week but the majority of those days are 6 hour days, sat at a desk, which I have stressed isn’t doable with SPD. They’re saying it’s only 7 more working days, but in hours it feels like a mammoth task with the pain I’m in. Also, it’s a very demanding job with constant phone calls and very rude customers, which again, I have explained I’m finding really hard to concentrate on with the baby brain/brain fog! I can barely put a sentence together at the moment.

I initially shied away from getting signed off as I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes and create problems but I have insisted I’m struggling both physically & mentally and cannot give anywhere near 100% to the job at the moment - as well as telling them of my midwife’s advice and they just don’t seem to care - all due to staffing issues! One of my colleagues is on annual leave for 2 weeks as of Friday and there is only one other full time worker - the rest (including myself) are part time, so they need me as a fill in on the days the other part timers aren’t working. When I’m on mat leave though, they will have to figure things like this out and my midwife said it really isn’t my problem!

What would you do in my situation? I’m driving myself mad and constantly arguing with myself. Any advice would be great.

TIA x

You were supposed to inform them of when you want your leave to start at around 25 weeks pregnant as its not up to them, it's up to you. You'd then give them 28 days notice if you wanted to change that date.

Get signed off if you need to and then your maternity leave will start at 36 weeks if you are still off with your pregnancy related illness

You tell your employer when your mat leave starts, it's not their decision, but you were supposed to have done it by week 25 so I assume as you didn't tell them they made an assumption. I think your only option now is to get signed off and then your mat leave can start on the date they have

I would give 28 days notice now, then be signed off sick.as advised by health care professionals until that date.

I had no idea about this to be honest 🤦🏼‍♀️ I did email possibly around 26 weeks and said I’m thinking of the beginning of July and they said they won’t put anything down on the system until we discuss it in early June. That was before the SPD started though.

I’m due to work at the end of this week for 2 days so I will see how it goes and will really consider a visit to the GP.

Thank you for your advice.

It would have been the same 8 years ago.

Have you not read their maternity policy?

I don't understand how you're in a situation where a mat leave date hasn't been agreed? As PPs have said, legally this has to be decided by 25 weeks, so 15 weeks before your due date. Your employer is also correct when they said 28 working days notice is needed to change the start date, meaning they must have had a date in mind when you've brought this latest concern to them.

I can't work out who's "in the wrong" here so to speak, as it seems like some details are missing from your explanation. You say your employer said they'd discuss it later with you when you tried to raise a conversation about mat leave, but also that they'd assumed a start date on your behalf. None of this is formal or legal. What size a company do you work for? At my workplace, the minute I said I was pregnant, HR has been on it ensuring mat leave pay and plans were sorted well before baby arrived. And I had it in writing as well.

In the meantime it does seem like your only real option is to get signed off sick and then mat leave will be triggered during your absence period. It isn't your responsibility to worry about shift rotas or mat leave cover - all of this should be sorted before you leave, but not by you.

It was very different 8 years ago - I was under a different company and they took charge with it all. I’m pretty sure everything was in place by around 20 weeks then. This is a fairly new company and they’ve only had one employee go on maternity leave previously, who was full time - every time we’ve had any sort of discussion surrounding the pregnancy, they don’t seem to have much clue about it all.
No, I didn’t read the policy which is my fault, but as I said, I have tried to prompt a discussion on it previously and was shut down.

It’s a very small company who are gradually expanding. They’ve known about my pregnancy from about 6 weeks as I had to go to quite a few appointments early on - suspected ectopic etc. but nothing has ever been put in place. I didn’t know about the policies - I hold my hands up to this - my previous employer took full charge so I didn’t even have to think about it last time.
I emailed around the beginning of May and said I’m thinking I’ll take it from 36 weeks and her words were ‘I’m not putting any dates in yet as things can change so we’ll discuss this at the start of June’. In all honesty, I don’t think they have much of a clue about the policies themselves - she only went the HR once I’d said about physically and mentally struggling to do the job, 2 weeks ago.
I think we’re probably both at fault in some way, it’s just a really awkward situation now as I don’t want to upset anyone but I also don’t want or need the added stress of it all, on top of being in pain 24/7 with the SPD.

Its probably worth talking to your GP about a sick note or fit note if there are aspects of your role you can't do due to pregnancy symptoms.
In the pregnancy with my daughter I had to do risk assessment each trimester, I'd ask for this so they know what adjustments you need.

For example how long can you sit for, what adjustments would allow you to do the role without being detrimental for your health.

I had adjustments in the first trimester for two pregnancies last year due to fatigue and sickness. I could work from home more, take more breaks etc with the first of the pregnancies this allowed me to take one or two days a week avoid a prolonged sicknote. I prioritised more time critical aspects of my role. The second pregnancy I needed 4 weeks off sick. Part of my role was passed on to someone else and for the first two weeks of being back I shared this role and slowly I took it back on

Yes you probably should have organised the mat leave sooner but at any point in the third trimester a woman might develop symptoms that makes work untenable or even go into preterm labour! If possible reasonable adjustments should be put in place if not then you would be looking at sick or fit notes until you can stay maternity leave.

It’s a statutory requirement. Might even be printed on the MATB1.