Do I have to let work know when my baby is born?

[Daisychain185]

I have just started maternity leave with an agreed return date of September 2025. Am I required to let work know when my baby is born?
I imagine most people do but just wondered if it is a legal requirement?
They have revoked my email access and access to the work file system since mat leave started, so I am being kept out of the work loop and as such don't really feel like sharing my personal news with them.

No.

I don’t think you’re obliged to. But surely you have colleagues you’d want to tell?

No, as long as you're on official maternity leave, not annual leave for a bit first?

If the baby is born before actual maternity leave starts you would need to tell them, so that they can start you on proper mat leave but I'm assuming that doesn't apply here?

You sound unhappy - is there something going on at work that makes you feel this way?

Yes, I would text those specific colleagues separately.

Yes I'm now on official maternity leave.

You're right, I am not happy at work and as they have removed my email and system access I am kept out of their loop so don't feel like keeping them in mine.

That is a pretty normal thing to do. You are not in work for a year. Why do you need access to the systems?

Standard practice in my company for employees on maternity or long term sickness: it’s not to keep anyone out of the loop, it just makes the account dormant so that nobody returns to 76,543 unread emails.

I can’t imagine that anyone beyond the colleagues you’d text separately really cares all that much about when your baby is born, so as you’re in official maternity leave it’s up to you whether you tell them or not.

Being that petty could be a bit career limiting. If you go that route you might find they match you when you’re looking for a smooth return.

Not normal in my company to remove access. You haven't left and if you wanted to read any emails that's entirely up to you. What about KIT days? If someone wants to do one at 3 months and 2 more at 5 months or whatever do you have to get IT to switch their access back on and off again?

But no, you don't have to tell them the baby has arrived. Just if you are making any changes later on to your expected date of return or wanting to return PT.

I thought your statutory maternity pay, leave etc are calculated from DofB so they need to know. Or at least payroll does.

It's standard IT security practise to remove access to systems not being used.

Yes, that's what's happens when you're not working for a year. You should not have access to the business systems during this period.

Maternity leave and SMP is calculated from when you chose to start your leave. My first one ended up being late so had already been on mat leave for 4 weeks, second one was less than one week. Start date doesn't change.

Why not? I'm still an employee. Should I not have the same access rights as other employees?

That's really petty to get upset about something like this..
It's probably just a normal practice and something they do with everyone.

They didn't do it for my last maternity leave so it's not normal practice.

Not normal to me either. As you say you haven't left. Seems entirely inappropriate to me to remove your access and treat you as if you've left.

On our HR system it has a box to fill in for actual date of birth. I always fill this in for my reportees when they tell me the date baby was born. I thought it made a difference if you were using annual leave before starting maternity because once the baby is born you have to start maternity leave? We leave our employees with access to all systems when on maternity but wouldn’t surprise me if some places didn’t (cost of licences?)

It might if someone has taken annual leave and then her baby arrived really early before her mat leave was due to start so the mat leave start date had to change. But anyone can book, for example, 2 weeks of annual leave at 35 weeks leading straight into their maternity leave starting at 37 weeks and then the baby arrives at 38 or 40 or 41 weeks. Makes no difference to the maternity leave.

Have you asked why your account / email access has been frozen? Maybe the policy has changed since your last maternity leave?

Have you spoken to your line manager about how (and if) you want to be kept updated while on maternity leave?

If you’re happy in the job apart from this matter I think you risk creating / seeing an issue where there isn’t one. I’m afraid it does sound extremely petty to not tell your manager when your baby is born. Do you think that will punish them in some way?

Try to enjoy your time with your new baby.

My first son was born when I was still officially on A/L before maternity leave. His birth triggered maternity leave to start automatically. So your employer does need to know in those circumstances, although the OP has said that doesn’t apply in her case.

I couldn't access any work things onmat leave and my emails were frozen, its a really normal thing to do. My manager asked I wanted to be kept up to date with anything while I was off, I said no!

Leave is work out when you officially start your leave as well, unless your baby is born before you start mat leave.

All our systems are revoked as if your down as active employee then you have to keep mandatory training up to date and a lot of the emails are system generated and you need to respond or someone has to chase them

as for emails you would come back to 1000’s do that is deleted as well

Why do you want access op? You sound very put out by it, rather than full or glee you won't get sucked in to checking and can focus on your baby.