Trying to conceive while starting new job

[Adam88]

Hi everyone,

New here, and hoping you might be able to help. My wife and I have been trying to conceive, but a dream job appeared and she had to go for it.

We have stopped trying for now as the eligibility for maternity pay would make a huge difference to us, but we are unsure how long we need to wait. The official guidelines seem to be:

“have worked for your employer continuously for at least 26 weeks continuing into the ‘qualifying week’ - the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth.”

But what exactly does that mean, we can’t make sense of it.

If she joined, March 1st, then how many weeks / months would we have to wait until it would be safe to start trying again (if it happened first time), and still receive maternity pay?

Many thanks.

Essentially she needs to have a period after starting the new job - she needs to not be pregnant when she starts and since the first day of your period is what is technically counted as the start of week 1 of pregnancy, that’s what she needs to make sure of.
To put it another way, the due date needs to be at least 40 weeks after she starts. Technically it’s the start of the expected week of delivery that needs to be 40 weeks after she starts, the expected week of delivery is the week (starting from a Sunday) of your due date.

First thing you need to check is whether the post has a probation period, and what that would be. Most jobs I've worked it has been 6 months, but circumstances vary. You shouldn't resume TTC until she's successfully passed that, as while maternity discrimination is illegal, a shitty boss who doesn't want to deal with having a pregnant member of staff may be tempted to use the end of the probation period as a convenient way of levering them out.

You're probably better off asking on the "Employment Issues" board though: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/employment_issues

I work in the NHS and I worked it out at 6 months working there before getting pregnant. Wording sounds similar.

The legal timing is one thing, but if this is your wife’s dream job, you also need to take account of when she wants to be pregnant and taking time off. Sometimes a dream job might mean putting baby plans on hold for a few years because a woman wants to concentrate on her career and the opportunity she’s just won for her self.

JulesRimetStillGleaming

I'm on maternity leave from the NHS currently. I was employed for one month before I became pregnant.

You just need to not be pregnant the day you start and as pregnancy takes into account the time before conception too, then a month is plenty of time.

Are you talking SMP or EMP.

Does her company offer EMP?

Thank you for the replies. Sorry if this is the wrong place to post, I missed the Employment Issues section. If a moderator would like to move this thread, please do.

She has SMP, and her probation period is 3 months.

I was talking about enhanced maternity pay.

She is entitled to SMP if she becomes pregnant after starting in post. The important documentation is the MAT B1 form provided by the midwife at around 20 weeks, so check the dates are right on this.
Maternity Action has a lot of useful info. maternityaction.org.uk/advice/maternity-pay-questions/

Yes I'm talking about the enhanced pay too.

Trying to conceive while starting new job

Probably best to wait until you get home, in my opinion.

@Adam88

Thank you for the replies. Sorry if this is the wrong place to post, I missed the Employment Issues section. If a moderator would like to move this thread, please do.

She has SMP, and her probation period is 3 months.

The wording you have quoted sounds to be in reference to SMP. Most company handbooks and/or contracts wouldn't call themselves 'your employer'.

Does she definitely get enhanced? Not everywhere offers it.

Awkwardy

Yes key question here is whether it’s just SMP or more? If just SMP then I wouldn’t worry because if she isn’t entitled to that then she would probably get Maternity Allowance, assuming she didn’t have a gap between jobs.

Thanks everyone, and sorry for the confusion. She only get's Statutory Maternity Pay, she doesn't get any kind of enhanced Maternity Pay unfortunately. We just want to make sure she is still eligible for this, from our understanding Maternity Allowance would be less, as with SMP the first 6 weeks are your regular pay check, but 10% less.

Using the SMP calculator: www.gov.uk/pay-leave-for-parents

It seems like we'd need to have at least 2 month in the new role before getting pregnant, also it seems like the probation period does not effect this.

Yes you’re right about the 90%. Good look with TTC

I thought you just need to start the job not pregnant. I believe if she conceived the day after she started then you'd be ok

Sleepyquest, we checked on the calculator, and it said she would not be eligible immediately afterwards. Setting the due date a month or two later and she then was, but maybe we worked the dates out wrong… 🤔

I would wait until she passes probation and has the perm contract

@Sleepyquest

I thought you just need to start the job not pregnant. I believe if she conceived the day after she started then you'd be ok

If you conceived the day after starting, technically your pregnancy would have started earlier, as it would be counted from the first day of your last period. So I don’t think you would qualify.

If she started on March 1st and has had a period since then she’ll be fine to qualify if you conceived now.

You can literally get pregnant 1 week into a new role and qualify for SMP.

You have to have worked 26 weeks by the time you're 25 weeks essentially.

@Adam88 the first response was correct. Start the job, have a period, then start TTC.