How much maternity leave are you having/did you take?

Lemoncurd

I took a year with each of our first two. That time was very important to us, especially as I was breastfeeding. First time around it took me about 4-5 months to actually recover from the birth, I could never have returned to work after a month. This time I have been made redundant and don't have a job to go back to so who knows? Unless I have to go back to work I may stay off longer - at least until our middle child is at school in 2010.

You can still do MS (self employed work) when receiving SMP, if however you are already self employed or receiving MA you would not be able to do Mystery Shopping without it affecting your MA.

money_maker_3

I had no choice with my first but to go back to work when she was 11 weeks old as I had gone onto SMP and my hubby was in hospital getting SSP which we just couldnt live on and I hated myself for it and that was 6 years ago !!!

Baby 2 due now and I have enough saved to give myself 6-8 months off depending on the BILLS !!!!!

skint-student-nurse

i took 7 months off - i left work a month early due to having a hole in my waters but they thought my DD wasnt ready to be delivered so i was on bed rest for 4 weeks. i got smp and i started a degree the day after i finished my maternity leave. six months was enough for me at the time, but i think if i was to have another baby, i would want longer.

Kaz2904

With my first I had 2 weeks before and 3 weeks after.
I worked 1 night a week as a care assistant, I also worked for an agency and was a student nurse. I worked full time hours with the 3 (more if I'm honest) but fell through every gap and didn't qualify for SMP or any other maternity benefits. Or any other benefits for that matter. (Cause I was married.......)
I was absolutely not ready to go back, my bones were still too soft for heavy manual work. I hurt so much when I went back, my boobs were like watermelons cause DD still fed 2 hourly and I could only express once during the night. This was 2001.
With my 2nd I had qualified and been working just long enough to qualify for 6 months. So I took it!

Tiggergirl

I'm just coming to the end of my maternity leave. I've taken 9 months followed by an extra 4 weeks of using holidays up (2 weeks left to go!).

Originally I had planned and saved up enough to take 6 months leave, but by being more careful with money and saving on travel costs etc. I was able to take the extra time off. In the end I figured I might never get that opportunity again to spend that extra time with my daughter, even if it meant scraping by for a while longer.

TBH I would recommending saving up now so that you can afford to take more than a month off. There is always the possibility of needing more time simply to recover and adjust to being a mum. I ended up with a c-section and also picked up an infection in hospital so had a difficult time for the first few weeks.

Emmenelle

I took 7 months with my DS, so went back to work 4 days a week when he was 6 months old. I'm now a SAHM since I had my DD last March and I can see now that, whilst I was in a way glad to get back to work, I missed out on a lot with DS.

Don't forget to factor in a few weeks or so before the baby is due - with DS I worked until around 37 weeks and I was absolutely cream crackered. With DD, I left my job at 34 weeks and it couldn't of come a minute too soon and that's working in a desk job!!

Good luck with the TTC!;)

ladybirdintheuk

I've had a month off so far, and baby STILL isn't here yet! I'm taking the full 39 weeks paid bit, and then will use a few weeks of holiday before I go back. DH just about earns enough to cover mortgage and all the direct debits, so we will have to get by using SMP/child benefit/tax credits to cover food, petrol etc. It will be tight, but if that is all we have we will have to make it work!

We've not saved up a great deal in terms of money, but we have got large chunks of debt paid off and we've been spending money gradually on "baby stuff" (furniture and whatnot), but I have been stocking up on toiletries and things to make life a bit easier.

I know I will want to spend as much time as possible with the baby when it finally decides to put in an appearance, and that has to come before money really

As per everyone else, I would say start saving up now then you have at least 9 months of saving behind you You might find it useful to do a budget now of how much money you will have coming in while you are off, and what your expenses will be, and try and live on that amount now so you are used to it, and put all the extra in savings?

gizmodo_2

Wow, thanks for the feedback everyone. It's given me lots to think about.

Obviously when I was thinking a month, I had no clue about what I was on about! Although I 'know' people that have had babies, I've not known anyone close to me to know all these details.

We will definitely save up for so I can take off 6 months _after_ baby is born. I get the 90% pay for the first 6 weeks, now I see that 4 weeks of this could be before the baby is born. And then the SMP (£117) for up to 33 weeks. My employer is a small company and does not have any extra benefits.

When you all say that you had 6 months Maternity leave paid, do you mean it was the SMP?

Off to make a proper budget now and see what I can come up with

penguin83

I had 12 weeks off with my first and was still bleeding when I went back to work! Then had 4 months with my 2nd - couldnt afford anymore as I was on SMP.

*if* I have anymore I will get full pay this time from my employer so would be able to have 6 months off. z z

Js_Other_Half

gizmodo wrote: »

When you all say that you had 6 months Maternity leave paid, do you mean it was the SMP?

I got some extra on top of SMP - so I tagged it onto the end of my 6 months SMP - which meant I got some money coming in for 9 months.

I went back 2 1/2 days a week, but given that I pay £38 a day for 3 days for childcare I am working for relatively little - but I'm keeping up with my chosen field, paying into a pension, etc. Both of us get the maximum childcare vouchers from our employers, but we get very little tax credits because of our joint salaries.