I decided to take nine months maternity leave. I went off two weeks before my due date (my baby came a week in) with plans to spend as much time with my baby after. I would have loved to have taken a year but money meant as a family we couldn’t afford it.
In the UK when you go on maternity leave you are entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay. For the first six weeks you get 90 per cent of your average weekly earnings before tax, and then for the next 33 weeks £145.18 per week or 90 per cent of your average weekly earnings (whichever is less). But if you choose to go off for a year you get no money for the last three months. I wouldn’t say it was a complete struggle when I was on SMP but given the choice I knew going back to work and getting money was the sensible thing to do.
However I feel as if I can moan too much, in America new mums only get 12 weeks unpaid leave. I can’t even imagine how it would have felt to have left Ethan when he was 12 weeks old, it is hard now. Also if you have had a c-section it takes six weeks to recover, but I would say really it took my longer than that to fully feel myself.
In Sweden parents are given 480 days of leave per child, and 420 of these days are paid at a rate of 80 per cent of the persons salary up to a capped limited of 910 SEK a day, and fathers are encourage to take five months out of this leave.
Maternity leave is a funny thing you spend a large majority of the start just trying to figure out what the hell you are doing, the next bit you get into the swing of it and then by the end you are thinking about going back to work. I find it sad that just as your baby starts to approach a lot of firsts…crawling, talking and walking you have to hand them over to a nursery or grandparent and head to work.
I have already said to the nans I want to know when he crawls as I know I may miss out on this, fingers crossed he does it while I am home.
I enjoyed my maternity leave but don’t feel I took full advantage of it and fully appreciated being off.
Dads in the UK get two weeks paid paternity leave but can share a woman’s maternity if they wish. My husband and I did discuss him taking some of my maternity leave but he started a new job, and to be honest I didn’t want to share near the end as I loved spending time with my little one. Selfish I know but at least now he gets to spend the day with him when I’m at work, and judging by his face after the first day I think one day at a time is just enough.
Maternity leave is a fantastic thing but just goes so quick. I can’t believe my little boy is nine months old!
Charlotte Harding 