should the maternity entitlements be different when a baby is prem.

[anonandlikeit]

A colleague returned to work today after maternity leave, her baby was born almost 4 months early, so her maternity entitlement started the day her dd was born.
Her DD was in hospital for almost 5 months, so she has had very little time with her baby.
Her DD is doing well now but is still pretty much like a new born.

Her dh is self employed asnd as he has to ahve so much time off when baby was very poorly & looking after their other dd there was no chance that she could extend her maternity leave as it would of been unpaid.

I remember being in the same situation, retunring to work having only had ds2 at home for 3 months (that was with a few wks unpaid).

Should the rules be changed?
Should maternity leave be extendable for prem births?

I felt so sorry for this poor lady today, who should i wave a plcard at and campaign to?

I'd personally love to see some type of extension allowed for babies born prematurely. Not sure how they'd sort out how much though. Perhaps extend it by the amount of time the baby was in NICU, as that is somewhat an indication of the level of care needed for the baby? So if the baby was in NICU for 2 months, then extend it for 2 months, if in for 5 months, then extend it for 5 months. Sorry, I've not ever had a baby in NICU or dealt with that situation (mine have all either been overdue or only early by a week) so not sure if that would be helpful or not.

I would imagine it would be best for both the parents and the babies.

There should definitely be something in place for prem babies. Especially as a lot of them have such a hard first year.

My old place of work were fantastic for this though. One of the ladies had a 3 month prem baby, so she had her 6 months maternity leave (what it was then) and then when she was meant to return they told her they would allow her a further 6 months sick pay, as long as she got a sick note from the doctors to make it legit. AFAIK she was signed off with tress and work didn't batter an eyelash.

My boss did send my colleague home at lunch time with instructions to go to the DR & get herself signed off sick... He is a lovely boss!