Planning for Maternity Leave

Maternity leave is an important aspect of your pregnancy; it makes sense to understand how it all works, when to talk about it at work, and planning for the financial end of things.

It would be really nice if you could just go shopping for an early pregnancy test and some maternity cloths and be done with it, but there is more to get ready for a new baby than just the basics. Especially if the new mother works outside the home, the motherhood maternity experience is more complex and a lot of it doesn’t have anything to do with the physical part of having a baby. In order to be fully prepared for your child’s birth, you have to have all of the aspects of maternity leave in order. You also have to educate yourself about pregnancy discrimination and what to look out for as far as that issue is concerned as well. With any kind of luck, hopefully the maternity leave is as stressful as things get.

Let’s review the basics of maternity leave to make sure everyone is on the same page. Once upon a time the new mother was the only one who was entitled to time off work due to the birth of a child. After all, she is the only one who needs time to physically heal. However, many fore thinking employers have made the change to allow fathers time off as well. It might not be as much as mothers can expect, but it still makes a huge difference in the way a new father bonds with his new child. In hindsight, some new dads might say it was the toughest paternity test out there.

It’s interesting to note that in every other developed country in the world, besides the U.S., most family leave is paid. Here parents, especially moms who have to have time off, have to rely on a combination short term disability, vacation or personal days, and sick time to care for themselves and their new baby. Anything that can’t be covered paid this way is then taken up with unpaid time off. This is one of the reasons why maternity insurance is becoming so popular. Most families can’t afford for either money maker to be out of work for any length of time.

While not every employer offers it, short term disability can be a lifesaver when it comes to preparing for how to afford the time off on maternity leave. In many cases, these benefit pays all or a portion of your salary while you are forced out of work for a period of time due to illness, injury, or pregnancy. Larger companies often offer this service. Be sure to check into short term disability. Among the companies that offer it, most don’t require you to sign up for it, it’s an automatic thing. To be eligible for the short term disability you usually have to be out of work for at least a week. Fortunately, it’s a sure bet you will need the average 6 weeks or more for recovery.

When it comes to the best time to request maternity leave or inform your boss you are expecting is a complex question. It’s natural to want to tell everyone from the grocery clerk to your closet family the news at the sign of pregnancy symptoms, however, that might not be the best way to approach things at work. You can certainly tell your friends at work whenever you feel like it, but for maternity leave and the boss, waiting a bit is usually better. At some point in the second trimester you should inform your supervisor. It’s before your condition is obvious and long before the deadline for a temporary substitute for your job is needed. Use your common sense and the situation with maternity leave and your job should work out just fine.