Medical Leave VS. FMLA/maternity leave

kp90 · April 2016

Does anyone know or have experience in dealing with a doctor putting you out of work before you planned? I go tomorrow to see if I can return at all but I don't want this to cut into my FMLA/maternity I plan to take with LO. I am 36 weeks so I still could have a few weeks left to go and really hate to waste it but I want to do what the doctor thinks is best. I have emailed and called a lady in HR and still heard nothing back and starting to get very irritated. Any info or experience would help. Thank you!

missnc77 · April 2016

I'm pretty sure any sort of "medical leave" you'd want to take as prescribed by your doctor = FMLA leave. FMLA is not exclusively for pregnant women, it's for anyone that my need medical leave - i.e. the Family AND Medical Leave Act.

kp90 · April 2016

@missnc77 I understand that but when I filed for it my reason was maternity leave/birth of a child. I've heard that they can't make me start using up the 12 weeks of FMLA if the doctor is making me take off work earlier than expected. That came from a doctor my mom works with but I don't know if rules vary per company, state, etc. I would rather try to tough it out at work than lose time with LO.

slfezz · April 2016

Your FMLA starts with the first day you take off for either pre-pregnancy issues or birth of a child. Both situations are independently covered by FMLA but use the same bucket of time. That's the way the federal law was written but some companies do have different policies when implementing FMLA. Is there another mom you could talk to at the company and see what their experiences were?

obryana6219 · April 2016

It also depends on if you have short term disability leave where you work. I was out on modified bed rest a month ago and since it is a medical leave it's considered short term disability. Then I get 8 weeks of partially paid leave for birth because I'm having a cesarean. I don't qualify for FMLA because I haven't been with my company for over a year yet. FMLA is a 12 week total for 12 running calendar months, so if you get put on leave early the time will start ticking. My old job used to have "mother baby bonding time" that you could take. It was unpaid and for up to 8 more weeks after you were supposed to return. They had to hold your position if you decided to take this too.

saladflambe · April 2016

FMLA begins the first day you take off, whether that's before or after baby. However, some states have additional rules, so be sure to look into your state laws.

dsmith211 · April 2016

slfezz said:

Your FMLA starts with the first day you take off for either pre-pregnancy issues or birth of a child. Both situations are independently covered by FMLA but use the same bucket of time. That's the way the federal law was written but some companies do have different policies when implementing FMLA. Is there another mom you could talk to at the company and see what their experiences were?

This. I put a specific date on my forms but my work made a point to specifically tell me if I happened to leave earlier that my leave would start then. The FMLA covers the pregnancy as a whole. Meaning any time you have to take off prior to delivery and then any time after.

tgortney · April 2016

kp90 said:

@missnc77 I understand that but when I filed for it my reason was maternity leave/birth of a child. I've heard that they can't make me start using up the 12 weeks of FMLA if the doctor is making me take off work earlier than expected. That came from a doctor my mom works with but I don't know if rules vary per company, state, etc. I would rather try to tough it out at work than lose time with LO.

I work for a City Government in NC. I know you live in NC so from what I understand is, FMLA is a federal law for medical leave for any reason at all. You're allowed 12 weeks out of a full calendar year to take it for whatever reason.

Maternity leave just means that your doctor is writing you out for 6 weeks (vaginal) or 8 weeks (c-section) and that tells your short term disability how long they need to pay you for (which is a different entity from your company) once all your sick time or vacation time runs out.

Maternity leave (or short term disability) and FMLA goes together because FMLA is just a federal law that guarantees you'll have a job after 12 weeks of leave (with or without pay according to your company policies).

That means if you go on bed rest then you would in turn have less time with your LO. I could be on bed rest for my broken foot right now but I'm toughing it out to make sure I get to take my full 10 weeks (I'm just taking 10 out of 12) when my baby arrives.

Now, if you want to talk short term disability and what's covered and what's not according to bed rest vs birth of child. That's a whole another ball game.

I hope some of that makes sense! I think if you really need to be on bed rest, you should do it. I know it sucks to have less time with your LO but it's probably better to keep her in there longer for the sake of her health down the road. But that's just my opinion. I'm sorry you're having to go through this

America's Maternity leave policies suck.

doozer1345 · April 2016

My doctor took me off a week early (I planned to work this week as my last week) and my HR is saying I have to use this as FMLA. I'm only able to take off 10 weeks anyways (ML here is 16 weeks) with 8 weeks being paid by short term disability. How my job does it is any days missed for medical reasons past 5 days to a week has to be filed under FMLA. I don't know if it's just them or if that's everywhere.

MsIan · April 2016

I was on bedrest for a month. It started my FMLA clock. We have short term disability at my job but it doesn't kick in for me until FMLA runs. I'm back at work now but I've burned 4 weeks of FMLA. So I'll have to file for disability when the baby comes.

huskypuppy14 · April 2016

tgortney said:

kp90 said:

@missnc77 I understand that but when I filed for it my reason was maternity leave/birth of a child. I've heard that they can't make me start using up the 12 weeks of FMLA if the doctor is making me take off work earlier than expected. That came from a doctor my mom works with but I don't know if rules vary per company, state, etc. I would rather try to tough it out at work than lose time with LO.

I work for a City Government in NC. I know you live in NC so from what I understand is, FMLA is a federal law for medical leave for any reason at all. You're allowed 12 weeks out of a full calendar year to take it for whatever reason.

Maternity leave just means that your doctor is writing you out for 6 weeks (vaginal) or 8 weeks (c-section) and that tells your short term disability how long they need to pay you for (which is a different entity from your company) once all your sick time or vacation time runs out.

Maternity leave (or short term disability) and FMLA goes together because FMLA is just a federal law that guarantees you'll have a job after 12 weeks of leave (with or without pay according to your company policies).

That means if you go on bed rest then you would in turn have less time with your LO. I could be on bed rest for my broken foot right now but I'm toughing it out to make sure I get to take my full 10 weeks (I'm just taking 10 out of 12) when my baby arrives.

Now, if you want to talk short term disability and what's covered and what's not according to bed rest vs birth of child. That's a whole another ball game.

I hope some of that makes sense! I think if you really need to be on bed rest, you should do it. I know it sucks to have less time with your LO but it's probably better to keep her in there longer for the sake of her health down the road. But that's just my opinion. I'm sorry you're having to go through this America's Maternity leave policies suck.

June Lurker*

Just wanted to clarify the bolded. This may be true of your employer, but not every employer makes you take your vacation and sick time first. Mine doesn't. I use my STD first and then take my vacation time, so I will have more vacation after I return from maternity leave. STD at my company also pays 100% which not all plans do.

Also, 12 weeks is the maximum amount of time that employers have to keep your job, but if you have a good employer, most are not going to fire you if you take a couple extra weeks. This is something you could negotiate. A few women at my office have taken 14 weeks when their child was born. Again, this is company specific, after you are past the federal mandated time, so talk with your HR department.

missnc77 · April 2016

@tgortney Echoing @huskypuppy14 - I don't have to use my annual leave. I do get 2 weeks of paid leave through sick leave, but my company doesn't have a sick leave cap, so it's not like I'm using hours that I've banked or saved up. My company does the following in this order:

12 Weeks FMLA

- 2 Weeks Sick Leave 100%
- 4 Weeks STD 100%
- 2 Weeks STD 70%
- 4 Weeks unpaid

So, if I want to use my annual leave to get paid and then push out my STD, I could, but it's not a requirement. We're fortunate where I can go 4 weeks unpaid, and we'll be fine financially. This means that I keep accruing annual leave while I'm out, I retain the annual leave I have banked when I go out on leave, and I don't have a sick leave bank I depleted.

tgortney · April 2016

@huskypuppy14 and @missnc77

Obviously it depends on your employer on how they mandate STD (mine is 50% of pay) and full paid time off works while on FMLA. Mine just works that way, unfortunately.

I was going to suggest if she has a good employer to use a schedule "vacation time" a week before due date or something and it wouldn't count towards her FMLA. But didn't want to confuse her because you can't just assume you'll be ok after your 12 weeks is gone because you have a potentially good employer. The law only protects you for 12 weeks.

But I think we all answered her original question as to how FMLA actually works. Once you go on leave for pregnancy, it counts and doesn't matter if you've given birth or not. Technically, the prenatal appointments we all go to could be counted towards frequent time off also but, fortunately, we all don't work for sh*t employers.

When in doubt, talk to HR.

TinaTho · April 2016

I was taken out of work at 28 weeks, prior to them approving modified bed rest (work from home as I have a 3 hour a day commute) I went over FMLA at length at the time as I was terrified that I'd have no leave left. While they said they had to enforce FMLA from the first day out, they also said as a company policy that I could request personal leave after the baby came which would be at the discretion of my department head. Basically, I could take more time and after the 12 week period it was up to my boss to decide whether or not she wanted to hold my position for me. Most companies have similar leave policies so it's worth it to talk it over with them.

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