Maternity pay entitlement - ttc dates confusion!

[GreenFrog33]

Hi there, I’m hoping that someone with a better brain for dates can help me work out when I can start ttc.
I started a new job on 11 September this year and our maternity policy sets out that I am entitled to employers full enhanced maternity pay following 1 years continuous service up to the first date that I am entitled to take maternity leave (11 weeks before due date).
So what date does this mean we can start ttc?? I know it’s unlikely to work like clockwork but I have fantastic mat leave available and really don’t want to miss out by just a couple of weeks if we do happen to get pregnant 1st time!

due date is 40 weeks, which is actually 40 weeks after your last period before you conceive (conception is around 2 weeks' "pregnant" - yes it's bizarre). So you'd need the 29 week mark to be 11 Sept 2018 which means last monthly period would be on or after Feb 20th.
I'd wait until Feb was over until ttc.
It probably won't happen first time but it did for me (once... ttc #2 was a different story...)

That’s really helpful, thanks so much reallyorange!

I would wait until a bit later than that - this is a very unlikely scenario but if you did get pregnant in feb then gave birth prematurely eg 24 weeks then you might still just miss out on the maternity pay.

Thanks ChessieFL, definitely worth factoring in. To add further stress to the situation I’m actually on a contract until 31 December 2019 so it’s all a bit of a race against time 😐