Taking Maternity Leave
About the time you make it to your second trimester you should start looking at when and if you will be taking maternity leave. Not all, but most employers offer at least 3 months. Sit down and take a look at what your company has to offer you. Maternity leave is time off that all women should really take advantage of. This is a special time that you can use to get all the last minute items together, make final plans for delivery and once baby is here, get that much awaited bonding time together as a family.
One of the reasons why some women opt out of taking the full 3 months to be home all boils down to money. Generally, maternity leave is not paid time off and not all families can afford a loss of wages for that amount of time. When planning to take your maternity leave, take a good hard look at your finances to see how long you really can afford to be away from work. If maternity leave is looking like it's just not going to happen for you there are companies like Aflac that you can start paying into now so you can have money coming in later when you are at home. Like worker's compensation that you would receive if you were hurt on the job, Aflac will send you a check for a portion of what you were making on the job. Granted, it won't be as much as what you would have gotten if you were at work but it may very well be the perfect amount your new family needs to stay comfortable.
Another option you have to utilize is your vacation time. If you don't already know how many paid vacation days you have accumulated, ask. Your employer should have no problem getting the information for you. If your vacation time is accumulated by how many hours you have worked, be sure to also ask for an estimated paid vacation time that will be accumulated by the time you are planning on taking your maternity leave. Since vacation pay is normally full pay, you can decide how much of it you need to use. Some companies do not require that you take the full day. Instead you can request a specific number of hours of paid time off.
The other option you have for income is your sick pay. Sick pay should be your last resort because you never know when you are going to need it. Take into consideration how your sick pay accumulates. Does it accumulate according to how many hours you work or is it a pre-determined amount of time that resets at the beginning of th calendar year? Has your sick pay been carried over every year? Some companies are more giving than others when it comes to sick pay. If you work for a company that lets the hours stack up with out a cap on it or your delivery will be towards the end of the calendar year when it will cycle again, then by all means, use it and don't even think twice about it. Once you're back to work you'll have more stacked up in no time.
Planning and taking your maternity leave is well worth all the extra effort in the end. Work with your employer and significant other to make sure that all your financial basis are covered. Once you do, sit back and take a deep breath because once it's all done the only thing you have to focus on is your new arrival and everything baby that you have been waiting so long for!
