Job hunting with a newborn

[PenguinArmy]

I left my job when I was pg with DC2 as it had become almot impossible to do my job. This was in the states, we've moved back to the UK, DS has been born and is now 3 months. I work in a relatively specialised field and I have a few meeting/interviews coming up.

My question is do I have any rights regarding start date (long shot I know). E.g. if I was offered the job would they have to do anything to accommodate waiting until he was a bit older, minimum 6 months or they'd be able to withdraw the offer if I was unable/unwilling to start sooner. He is a bottle refuser so less than 6 months is rather unpractical (even if I was in the same job as when pg)

No they wouldn't have to - the compulsory maternity leave in te uk is 2 weeks - after that you can work. You could negotiate though.

There are some entitlements wrt breast feeeding / expressing when back at work though.

No rights I'm afraid. They wouldn't need to withdraw the offer, you'd need to decline really. They'd make an offer for you to do x job starting on y date. You'd either accept or decline, or ask them if they would be prepared to amend the offer to incorporate a later start date. If not, then you'd decline.

But most people have to work a notice period so by the time you've got an offer and if they'd had to wait for you to work a hypothetical notice period, you may be able to ask them to wait a few more weeks until your DS is 6 months.

Could he be brought nito work to breastfeed? I returned at 2 weeks and fully breastfed. With the twins (I work for myself then and now) they were brought to me to feed and then taken and that was briliant. With the older children I expressed milk at work. I've never bottle fed a baby in my life but they seemed to take my breastmilmk from others in a bottle.

oh well, knew it was a long shot. What got me thinking was what happens when pg people apply for jobs.

I returned to work at 4 months with DD and did the joyous expressing malarky. Wondered legally how the breastfeeding stuff got changed if you had a DC who needed feeding in the day but refused bottles.

Is it a big company? I work for a large company and it takes a seriously long time to get someone through all the pre-employment checks etc. Had someone start a couple of weeks ago who I offered the job to in early Nov. He is a new graduate so wasn't working and had no notice period and was desperate to start. We were desperate for him to start. It still took 2 months. So they may be more accommodating than you think.