Doesn’t it seem like there are a million things to do during pregnancy? The list can seem never ending. You want to make sure you have all the right baby essentials, that your house is stockpiled for postpartum, and that you’ve done all that you can to prepare for birth and life with a newborn.
- Learn What You Are Legally Entitled To
- Have the Conversation With Your Boss
- Talk to a Maternity Leave ‘Veteran’ in Your Workplace
- Maximize Your Maternity Leave
- Create a Maternity Leave Transition Plan
- Set Realistic Expectations
- Determine Your Return to Work Date
- Note Research Childcare Options While You’re Still Pregnant
- Other Things to Do to Make for a Smoother Maternity Leave
- Now You Know How to Prepare for Maternity Leave
As a working mama, one of the most important things to prepare for is your maternity leave. In fact, it’s something you should start on during your second trimester, because there can be a lot of planning and logistics involved.
Preparing in advance for your maternity leave protects you legally, but will also make for a smoother transition into your time off and eventual return.
It will set realistic expectations of how and when to contact you during your time off, and remove a huge source of stress in your life. This will allow your sole concentration to be on caring for your sweet and snuggly newborn once they arrive.
Here, we’ve broken it down into steps to help you learn exactly how to prepare for maternity leave, from the initial research, to talking to your boss, to executing (and documenting!) your plan flawlessly. Let’s dive in.
Learn What You Are Legally Entitled To
The first step in preparing for your maternity leave is going to involve some research. Before you start sharing your big news with your co-workers and boss, it’s best to get a lay of the land. Find out what you are entitled to federally, at the state level, and take a detailed look at your company’s individual policies surrounding maternity leave.
Federal Leave Guarantees in the US
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to eligible employees of covered employers for certain family and medical reasons, including the birth and care of a newborn child.
Unlike many countries, working women in the U.S. are not guaranteed any paid maternity leave by the federal government.
What employers are covered by FMLA?
- Private companies with 50+ employees
- Public agencies (local, state, and federal government agencies) regardless of the number of employees
- Public or private elementary or secondary schools regardless of the number of employees
Who qualifies for FMLA?
- Individuals who for a covered employer
- Individuals that have been working for the covered employer for at least 12 months
- Individuals that have at least 1250 hours of service for the employer during the 12-month period immediately preceding the leave (this averages to about 24 hours/week)
- Individuals who work at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles
What else do I need to know about FMLA?
- You have a right to take 12 weeks of FMLA in a 12-month period, but this can be applied in various manners and fashions as long as your employer agrees in advance. For example, you may opt to take off eight full weeks and spread the remaining four weeks out over part-time leave.
- FMLA can be used as parental leave by both mothers and fathers.
- If you know in advance that you will be using FMLA, you must give your employer 30 days’ notice. If you learn of your need in less than 30 Days (like in the event of early labor or pregnancy-related disability) then you need to let them know as soon as possible
- FMLA states that you should follow your employer’s usual notice policy for requesting time off when applying FMLA.
- Your employer must communicate your eligibility for FMLA within five days of your request
- Often, you will be able and encouraged to apply sick time and other forms of paid-time off to your leave.
The information here was taken directly from the US Department of Labor’s Employee’s Guide to The Family and Medical Leave Act. For more details and specifics head there
Learn Your State’s Leave Policies
Once you’ve determined if FMLA will apply to your maternity leave, it’s time to take a look at your state’s benefits. While the majority of states do not offer explicit paid leave, many (upwards of 25) have amendments to FMLA that extend its length after a birth of a baby, reduce the employee numbers or hours required to increase eligibility for more individuals, or require companies to allow short-term disability to be applied to the leave so that some of it is paid.
As of 2018, four states offer some form of paid parental leave: California, New Jersey, Rhode Island and New York. By 2020 Washington D.C .and Massachusetts will also have paid programs taking effect. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 19 states proposed legislation toward establishing paid family leave. Hopefully these are signs of steps in the right direction!
To find out your state’s unique maternity leave laws, it’s best to go to your state’s official website and search for parental leave laws. Another good starting point is this interactive map summarizing state laws on pregnancy discrimination, breastfeeding and parental leave rights.
Learn Your Company’s Leave Policies
Your last stop for researching maternity leave, will be within your own company.
The best place to find information regarding maternity/parental leave at your company is in the employee handbook, and/or from an HR representative.
Some private employers do fund paid maternity leave. In 2018 around 16% of private industry workers had access to some paid family leave. This number increased to 25% of workers in private industry companies with more than 500 employees. Additionally, 25% of state and local government workers also had access to some amount of paid leave.
Your employee handbook will also outline the steps you need to take to ensure you are eligible for leave and anything else you need to do prior to your leave time.
Have the Conversation With Your Boss
Once you are educated on what you are entitled to, you should set up a meeting with your direct supervisor to share the news of your pregnancy. It really is best to share the news directly with them first before telling other co-workers. This will prevent them from finding out from someone else.
During this conversation, your objectives are to share your news and due date, ask about company policies, and let them know you are actively working on your leave plan.
NOTE: This is not the time to request specifics or even mention what you’re thinking. Save the detailed conversation for a later date.
Now that your news is out in the open, you can continue to gather information and take time to plan the right maternity leave for you and your family.
Talk to a Maternity Leave ‘Veteran’ in Your Workplace
Once your boss knows that you are pregnant, you can share the news with other coworkers as you see fit.
One strategy that was helpful for me was confiding my pregnancy in another new mama at my workplace. She gave me great advice on dealing with pregnancy symptoms at work and provided insight into the maternity leave process.
By talking to a maternity leave ‘veteran’ in your workplace, you can learn what she did, what she may have done differently, how your supervisor reacted and how she felt treated throughout the process. This will really help you formulate your own plan and have things go as smoothly as possible.
Maximize Your Maternity Leave
As you prepare for maternity leave, it’s most important to create a plan that is best for your family.
Some things to consider when thinking through how much time you want/can take off include:
- Based on the leave time I am entitled to, sick-time, and any percentage of paid leave, what will our family’s budget allow for in terms of maternity leave length?
- Have I had any pregnancy complications or do I anticipate any birth complications that may make my recovery after birth longer or more intense?
- How do the cost and availability of childcare or daycare for a very young infant factor into the length of my maternity leave?
- Will my partner take any parental leave? Will any of their leave be paid?
- How can I be creative with my leave and accrued sick time/paid time off to either extend the length of my leave or ease back into work with a part-time transition? How about my partner?
- What external support do I have that may help with the transition and/or childcare?
- When do I want to start my leave? Many women choose their due date, or 1 week before their due date to start their leaves. Other mamas work right up until labor to save all of their time off to be with baby.
With these things in mind, create your best-case scenario plan to propose to your employer.
Create a Maternity Leave Transition Plan
Once you talk to your boss about your planned leave and get approval from them and HR, you can work on a transition plan leading up to your due date.
Taking the time to prepare those around you for your leave intentionally sends a message of respect and professionalism to your workplace. Making these efforts and going about them in a thoughtful way will create more open communication and (hopefully!) a more receptive and supportive attitude from your team/sub/clients etc.
Taking extended time off from work does need to be approached with a plan. A lot of this will depend on your job, how many people you work with, and whether you have anyone reporting to you.
Consider what your company (or school, or agency) will do without you for ~12 weeks and think through what you can do to help prepare them for the transition.
This might involve delegating your responsibilities to members of your team, hiring temporary help to cover some of your tasks, making connections and introductions between clients and people temporarily covering your accounts, training an interim replacement/sub, or creating lesson and unit plans for your class during your leave.
If you aren’t sure what steps to take, ask your co-workers/team explicitly what you can do to make this easier on them. You can also lean on your boss and HR director for support and advice and ask other mothers in the company how they handled the transition.
Set Realistic Expectations
Beyond a transition plan for your leave, it’s in everyone’s best interest that you set realistic expectations for your leave.
You don’t want to make yourself too available during your time off and spread yourself too thin. But you also might not want to cut yourself off completely for 12 whole weeks (though this might be possible depending on your role or industry).
Think about what feels manageable and realistic for you. This is also a great question to ask other women who’ve taken leave in your workplace. What worked or didn’t work for them?
Perhaps once weekly phone/skype check-ins are something that make sense, or maybe you only want to offer limited email availability. This is something only you can decide for your unique personality and type of work. If you work for a large corporation, they may have policies about not checking work email during maternity leave (if so, honor it!).
Be sure to set up an auto-responder on your email and voicemail with some details about when they can expect to hear from you, who they can contact in the meantime, and what might constitute an “emergency” where they need to talk to you ASAP.
Determine Your Return to Work Date
Before you even have your baby, it’s a good idea to lay the groundwork for what you’ll need when you return. I’m talking specifically about pumping requirements at work. U.S. law “Break Time For Nursing Mothers” requires companies to provide breastfeeding mothers with reasonable break time to pump in a private space that is not a bathroom throughout their work day for 12 months after birth.
Under this law, the pumping breaks do not have to be paid, but if your company offers paid breaks and you use these for pumping, then normal pay should be applied.
Talk to your boss about your plans to pump ahead of time. Tell them you will need a designated space, how long you anticipate pumping breaks to take and how often you will need them.
On average, most working mothers pump every 2-3 hours for around 20 minutes. Consider the time to set up and properly clean your pump parts in your requested break time length. The typical ‘reasonable’ length of time is 30 minutes.
Note: Research Childcare Options While You’re Still Pregnant
Finding the right childcare for your infant is not an easy task. Many first-time mothers aren’t aware of the long wait lists and costs associated with care for very young babies.
This is because state licensing and child-to-caregiver ratios for young infants are usually very limited. For this reason, it’s important to start your childcare search and get on waitlists at daycare centers and even home daycares while you are still pregnant.
If your family chooses to hire a nanny or participate in a nanny-share, it’s also a good idea to arrange this well in advance. It will take time to interview candidates and find the ideal care provider for your family.
Choosing childcare is a highly personal decision and one that is going to take a lot of time. If you wait to take this on during your maternity leave it will feel more stressful. You don’t want to be using your precious time off visiting centers and conducting interviews. You also don’t want to choose lesser care simply because it’s what’s available.
Start your search for childcare early in the third trimester to give yourself plenty of time to find the perfect fit.
Other Things to Do to Make for a Smoother Maternity Leave
This article looked at the logistics of what to do professionally to prepare for your maternity leave. Beyond that, there are many things to do around the house and learn to make for an easier transition into life with a newborn and postpartum period. Here are some suggestions:
- Stockpile your home with everyday supplies and care products
- Prepare an all-natural postpartum care kit for yourself
- Learn about postpartum depression and anxiety ahead of time and know the warning signs
- Educate yourself about breastfeeding and find local breastfeeding resources and support groups to utilize during your leave
- Find local new mother/postpartum support groups to participate in during your maternity leave
- Read about newborn baby care and get educated on the best products and practices
- Be intentional in your plan for visitors at the hospital and the first few weeks after birth. Be kind to yourself and don’t be afraid to say no to people.
- Stock your freezer with healthy, real meals that are ready to be heated or thrown in the crock-pot
Now You Know How to Prepare for Maternity Leave
With the advice in this article, you are ready to take on your maternity leave plans like a pro. It’s important to get educated on the federal, state and company policies that apply to you so that you can advocate for yourself if needed. Hopefully, your workplace will be nothing but supportive as you plan your maternity leave, but preparing to advocate is always important.
Remember that communication and kindness will go a long way in getting what you need and receiving support from your workplace. This will ultimately result in less stress for you during your maternity leave. We wish you luck as you navigate this special time!
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