Maternity Leave

ColoradoHiker

Ugh, maternity leave.  Unpaid, FMLA.  I will have accrued about 5.5w of paid work leave by that point.  Due to my lack of knowledge about short term disability insurance, I was denied coverage because I found out I was pregnant right before the physical exam I had to get.  We would have waited if we had known about the exam, and even that there are usually wait periods after approval.  :-/  We'll probably save enough for about 9w total of maternity leave, which stinks compared to the 5 months (lost my job) I had with DS.  

sarahufl

I am a SAHM, so I don't get leave When I had DD, I got 6 weeks paid even though I resigned before I left. But I was in a fairly unique situation- I had a job I had been doing very independently for 5 years and nobody knew what I did. So I knew they would still pay me and would appreciate me being upfront about not coming back so I could train a replacement. 

DH gets 12 weeks, full pay. With DD he took 4 upfront and is currently taking the remaining 8 (they have a year to use it). It has been really fun for both of us to have him home. DD is almost 11 months old and loves having daddy around all day. He goes back March 6 and I'm already kind of sad about it. He will likely take the full 12 weeks up front this time since the kids will be about 18 months apart and I will need more help this time.

sableeg

I'm an independent contractor - a private practice therapist.  I'm not sure how I'm going to handle leave yet!  I want to take a few months off, but it will all be unpaid and I don't have any supplemental policy to help.  Luckily, I have some stock investments that I may sell to help cover expenses while I'm off.  My husband can take up to 8 weeks of sick leave, and he's planning on doing so since he has all of the sick hours accrued.

Also on my worry list is my clients.  I may end up going back one day per week earlier than 3 months to take care of some clients that are a little more high risk.

mrsvp614

@sugarpixxie2 We haven't even gotten any prices yet, so I could totally be underestimating. We're looking for part-time care, so I'm not sure what to expect. 

JNR6510

@wellhithen We just purchased the place here in Missouri. We got it for a steal! I was so happy we found this place and snapped it up before anyone else. We got our BFP literally the morning after we put in an offer. Definitely grateful for the perfect timing!

BecauseLove

We get 8 weeks unpaid (but required to use vacation/sick leave up first so some of it might be paid-likely 3 or 4 weeks). I will be taking the 8 weeks. Debating about asking to go back part time for December or asking for December off (so for an additional 4 weeks equally 12 weeks total). I won't be starting day care until January (if we can get a spot...we live in a small town and they have a huge wait list for infants...like I put my name in already and still might not get a spot almost a year from now). 

Edit: We are also trying to figure out paternal leave. What is dooable. He actually gets FMLA because he is in a big enough organization...but I don't know how much we can financially support nor do I know what his work can really handle of him being gone as I don't think men often take the full 12 weeks at his job. 

syounker

My job offers 12 weeks paid leave. 

labby18

yeah i have no clue what we are going to do. I am a contract employee of a guy who has NO kids...I also am moving about 2 months after my due date, so I probably will just be let go. So there's that. I'm actually kind of freaking out about it.

BookitBoo

I get 6 weeks unpaid leave. My husband was let go this week (alone with everyone else in our region) and while I'm confident he'll find a job soon, I'm nervous. I've never worked while pregnant so I've never dealt with maternity leave personally before and it fucking blows.

latershrader

I know I'm one of the lucky ones. My company has a very generous PTO policy. I've been here for 17+ years so I get 4 weeks of vacation a year. I'm saving all of that plus whatever sick time I don't use for OB appts. That combined with the JUST announced (like announced during my TWW) 8 weeks of full pay maternity leave, I hope to get 3 months w/ my new LO. If we can swing it, I'll take one month unpaid and come back at the first of the year. 
The pp who noted about dogs getting treated better than humans really triggered my anger. The US should really treat their families better. It's deplorable what they expect us to go through to have a child here...unpaid maternity leave, sky high child care costs, college tuition. Awful.

biglauryo

I work for the State and am guaranteed 12 weeks of FMLA and am using my accrued sick/vacation time (400+ hours) to take a fully paid maternity leave. My husband's company also just passed a new policy that fathers now get 6 weeks fully paid paternity leave, which is awesome! We're very lucky!

klcarr19

I am not sure at all. We just moved to Florida and I took a job (as a special needs teacher) in a room where I was physically pushed and pulled down this week. I have a feeling I'll have to resign as it's not a safe work environment for myself and the baby. 

If I can find another job that requires less physical restraining I will move forward with their policies but it's tough this far ahead. I'm hoping to take at least end of September to Early December off!

LynnBrown4

Canadian. I get 4 months mat leave, husband gets 5 weeks paternity leave and we have 8 months parental leave we can split. Our employer (we both work for the federal gov) tops us up to almost 100% pay during leave. Last time I took a total of 10.5 months, and he took 3 months. Will prob do the same thing again. My sympathies to American friends.

Hopefulmommy1980

I work for the state of Missouri.  We get six or 8 weeks depending on how the baby is born. I can get Fmla for 12 weeks (includes the six or 8 weeks). I can use sick leave for the first six or eight and annual leave for the rest. Luckily I have worked there for almost nine years so I have 11 weeks of sick leave saved up and 4.5 weeks of annual leave. I am planning to take ten so I can save a couple of weeks in case something comes up. 

Breath_Easy92

Well since I'm about to graduate my internship found out I was pregnant right before extending full time offers to everyone. I was the first one they picked for the internship and told over and over how wonderful I am and how they want me on full time up until the second they found out about the baby. Then they promptly offered PRN and told me that after the baby they'd love to talk to me about full time and how much of a gift this PRN offer is because I'll have so much time to prep for baby. I'm not sure how it happened but somehow when I spoke with HR they made it sound like my idea, it was like they couldn't hear me speaking.... so I'll have as long as I want I guess maturity leave

wellhithen

I would get 6 paid and then 6 more unpaid. Instead I'm going to work from home, even if it means less time off I will have more overall time home. I just need to figure out getting on my husbands insiramce since mine will end august and baby is due September! 

coolwhipz1

I work in a private dental office and while I can take up to 6 weeks leave, we only get paid for whatever vacation we have yet to use. Which is 2 weeks a year, which doesn't roll over. So I'll get two weeks paid....I'm going to quit my job to stay at home anyways so it doesn't matter for me luckily. Our office, and most dental offices, don't qualify for FMLA as they're under 50 people anyways. In my office there are 11 of us.

jessieR358

@Breath_Easy92 that's awful!! How is that legal? 
When I was pregnant with DS I was waiting for an internal transfer and I waited until I had that position until I told anyone because of crap like that. 

4N6s

I qualify for fmla. I don't necessarily have paid maternity leave, you have to use your vacation and sick time. After that, it's unpaid. 
Short term disability is an option too. 

sugarpixxie2

@Breath_Easy92 They cannot rescind an offer based on your pregnancy. 

Breath_Easy92

@jessieR358 I mean it's not legal but it happens all the time and it's a big hospital that pretty much is kinda known for playing by their own rules because they can everyone wants to work their. it really does suck though.

@sugarpixxie2 technically they never sent an HR offer it was all just talk at reviews so there's no paper work trail. They found out I was pregnant a few weeks early from someone else in my cohort who found out because I had morning sickness. 

jdarlin2012

@Breath_Easy92 why do employers have to be such dicks?! I'm in a similar position as you, and I tried really hard not to tell anyone at work I was expecting, but since I work in a lab I had to tell my supervisor so that she knew I couldn't do a study on certain chemicals. I plan to talk to my manager about a full time, salaried offer before I start showing. I'm definitely going to make sure there's a paper trail!

ETA: my phone auto corrected dicks. Apparently I don't use naughty words enough. 

SuperKristy85

I get 6 weeks for vaginal delivery/8 weeks for c section at 100% pay and then could take up to 12 weeks total  unpaid FMLA but as some others have mentioned I would also need to use my full vacation for this. I think 6 weeks is crazy, they cant even go into daycare until 8 weeks so what in the world are we supposed to do with them until then?! I have the luxury of being able to work from home the majority of the time so I'm contemplating if I can make that work with a baby at home. 

jesigirli

I work PRN now so I can take unpaid leave for as long as I'd like to. Nurses are in crazy high demand in my area so my job isn't going anywhere. I will likely be off for 4-5 months and pick up a day or two per week after that.

When I had DD I took 4.5 months off. I was working .6 (3x 8 hour shifts a week) and used my PTO and extended illness bank hours. That covered about 6 weeks of pay. 

Lastly i I just want to say my heart goes out to all you mommas who will return to work before you are ready. US maternity benefits are pathetic.