Extending maternity leave?

[workingmom2000]

I agreed with my employer my return to work dates. It is still some time for me to go back to work and I am wondering whether it is possible to extend the leave by say a month. How would it look professionally and are they legally obliged to extend it for me?

I work for a large organisation and we always advise women not to fix their maternity leave dates because nine times out of ten, plans change during maternity leave. If your organisation is anything like mine then they probably wouldn't be surprised that you've changed your mind.

Are you looking to extend your maternity leave beyond one year, or did you fix a date before the end of the 12 months. You weren't obliged to fix the date in advance anyway, and if there is enough time to extend your maternity cover it may not be a problem. You can only ask!

Yes, I can see now the foley of doing that !! I'm only extending beyond the 6 month but before 12 months. I will try and see how they react. Thanks!

actually to clarify I agreed on the return to work date not when I went on my maternity leave but afterwards. Would it reflect more badly in that case?

You are entitled to change your mind about your return dates as long as you give 8 weeks' notice of doing so. As llareggub says, a huge proportion of women change their mind about what they want to do anyway, so it would be unlikely that they'd be surprised.

In terms of how it looks, as long as you give as much notice as you can, it should be ok, although if they've made any firm plans with regard to your replacement or work you would be doing that would obviously be a bit more inconvenient.