Pregnancy related illnesses and benefits?

Zziggi

If the helpline wouldn't give you info until you are in the situation then could you not ring up annonymously for 'a friend' or 'your sister' who is already in the situation?

If you had hyperemisis in pregnancy then you have my grestest sympathy i was like that and it is hell on earth! i can understand why you are wanting to plan your pregnency and childcare arrangements because with hyperemisis pregnancy IS and illness. (BTW i had hyperemisis with my 1st and it was HELL - then got preg again when he was 4 months old and had hyperemisis again. I can well understand why you want to plan childcare. I was fortunate enough to have Granny who stepped in. 3rd preg however was plain sailing but that ended up a girl. IS it related to the sex of the baby?)

Gingham_Ribbon

I sympathise! It's not fun at all. I had several stays in hospital due to the hyperemesis and some due to the asthma and once because the doc said my heart was beating so fast he couldn't take my pulse. I'd have my regular check up at the doctor's and he'd ask me to wait with the receptionist while he called an ambulance!

The plus side is that I wasn't diagnosed as having asthma until I was pregnant as it'd been misdiagnosed as panic attacks for years but the pregnancy made it considerably worse. (The plus side being that I'm going into the next pregnancy already having treatment so it needn't be so bad next time.)

As for the sex of the baby? I know people who've had it sometimes and not others so whether it's random or whether it's to do with the sex of the child I don't know. It's an interesting one.

Gingham_Ribbon

Grrr! Have been holding on the new claims line for 14 minutes after being told there was only an 0845 no and 'there's nothing wrong with 0845.' What ever happened to the engaged tone? (I did check on saynoto0870 and this is the only no available. You'd think that most people who need this number are having financial difficulties and this is harsh, considering the other council lines are mostly ordinary landline nos.)

I gave up after 20 mins and sent an email. Fingers crossed I'll get some answers!

jellyhead

good luck! i have brittle asthma but with my first pregnancy it went away and stayed away for 4 years! with my second pregnancy it got a lot worse but is okay now the baby has arrived. hopefully you'll not get it next time, fingers crossed. i had hyperemesis both times though.

would you be allowed to take antihistamines during pregnancy, would that help?

Gingham_Ribbon

Hi jellyhead! That's amazing that your asthma went away for 4 years! I'm glad it's better now you're baby is here. I've heard that there is a strong link between brittle asthma and hyperemesis. Typical isn't it. If you've got a complicated type of asthma you're more likely to have complicated (and extreme) morning sickness!

I think all this talking about it is making me feel more confident about giving it a go. :-)

jellyhead

come to think of it i haven't been in hospital with my asthma since my first baby, and have only had steroids once in 9 years, but the recent bad asthma has coincided with my getting a hormone problem (PCOS) around 4 years ago - i never thought of it as being linked to hormones before.

i don't know much about sickness money, but if you could manage a part time job now you could get Maternity Allowance when pregnant. i didn't know about it, spendless told me (thanks spendless!) and i've been telling lots of people about it since, hardly anyone seems to know about it although i think it's mentioned in the government leaflet in the bounty pack. you need to have earned £30 a week or more for 26 weeks out of the 66 weeks before the expected date of the baby, so in theory you could work for 6 months and leave as soon as you're pregnant then start claiming MA 11 weeks before the due date, it lasts for 26 weeks and is 90% of the average pay earned on the best 13 weeks payslips you can find. it's a benefit, not means tested. i've put mine into the bank for the extension we're building, it almost covers the shortfall between the loan and the quote :eek: if you had MA it would be a useful safety net for paying for unexpected nursery fees.

hmmm, what else ... surestart grant of £500? you can get that if you get more than just the family element of child tax credit. there's also the chance that your tax credits award will go up if you have an extra child. of course you won't get this money until after you've had to pay the nursery fees, but knowing that you'll get it might help you feel less anxious about paying the overdraft you'll run up. the 547.50 baby element should cover any maternity clothes, baby stuff (second hand) etc. i had mine in advance due to an overpayment sittiong in the bank, so that covered all my ebay needs :-)

when looking at my baby budget and working out how to repay the loan for the extension i didn't plan for the baby to really cost any more than the 11.50 child benefit i'd get for him each week. i posted about this here and had pm's from people who agreed. breastfeeding, washable nappies/wipes, buying second hand, making food instead of buying jars etc. should keep costs quite low - you could even make a profit :rotfl: if you can manage on the child benefit then anything extra is a bonus, so child tax credits, baby element, surestart etc. could all help with nursery fees, although hopefully you'll be well enough to not need it

Spendless

jellyhead wrote:

i don't know much about sickness money, but if you could manage a part time job now you could get Maternity Allowance when pregnant. i didn't know about it, spendless told me (thanks spendless!) and i've been telling lots of people about it since, hardly anyone seems to know about it although i think it's mentioned in the government leaflet in the bounty pack. you need to have earned £30 a week or more for 26 weeks out of the 66 weeks before the expected date of the baby, so in theory you could work for 6 months and leave as soon as you're pregnant then start claiming MA 11 weeks before the due date, it lasts for 26 weeks and is 90% of the average pay earned on the best 13 weeks payslips you can find. it's a benefit, not means tested. i've put mine into the bank for the extension we're building, it almost covers the shortfall between the loan and the quote :eek: if you had MA it would be a useful safety net for paying for unexpected nursery fees.

aww jellyhead I am just pleased you applied. I can't remember how I found out about it, must have read it somewhere, but my midwife wasn't originally going to give me my MATB1 as she said I didn't work -I'd resigned in early stages of pregnancy due to ill health-and looked surprised when I said i did need it. A friend of mine was also convinced by her midwife she didn't need it and beleived her over me and so lost out on money she was due to. It's always grated with me that my friend never claimed so am glad someone else has benefitted from MA and hope other people do too.

Anyway Gingham Ribbon-I've just re-read your OP and notice your child is 20 months. Does this work out at Dec birthday? You get non-means tested funding term after 3rd birthday, so if he's 3 in Dec 2006 you'd get it from Jan 2007. If he's Jan born you'd have to wait till Easter 2007. Don't know when you're thinking of trying to conceive but would it be worth waiting till he'll qualify for the funding. Also does your OH employer offer nursery vouchers? If so you can salary sacrifice upto £50 a week in return for same in childcare vouchers. The money you've salary sacrificed is exempt from tax and NI. The vouchers could be used in conjunction with the funding at 3.

Spendless

One more thought-not sure if this has been suggested-but what about starting a 'nursery costs' savings account. Then you know that the money has been ear-marked for that if you fall ill and need to use it. And if you do sail thru the pregnancy then you've got a nice sum to spend on something else.

Gingham_Ribbon

That's really helpful, Spendless. I'll find out about the salary sacrifice. My friend's little boy goes to the creche at her husband's work, which is also where DH works so I'll ask her.

I've also been thinking that I may be entitled to patient transport for my weekly hospital visits so may not need to worry about taxi fares. And I may manage with a child minder for a couple of hours a day if she could pick him up and return him if I couldn't drive...

It's all conjecture, as jellyhead demonstrates, my asthma might be fine next time. With the exception of any hospital stays, I could manage the hyperemesis and look after my son as long as I carried a carrier bag around with me and didn't have to cook him anything!!!

(Edit: I just wanted to add that we are not struggling financially, nor do I think that we would be destitute if we were in the situation I'm describing. I just mean that I don't want to add worry troubles to health troubles IF I can avoid it.)

Gingham_Ribbon

Yes, he's a Dec baby. 30 used to be my 'scary' age for having kids, now it's 35 but since that's fast looming I suppose I'll have to move the goalposts again. I wish I'd met my fella when we were teenagers! We'd probably have a football team by now!