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Maternity Leave

Hope • Tue, Aug 23

As a FTM I've been struggling with this decision since I became pregnant.

For a vaginal, what's the minimum amount of time I should take for myself?

I'm obviously worried about supporting myself because I live in Florida and maternity leave is completely unpaid. I don't make very much money and my SO and I keep bills separate and we split shared bills 50/50.

Should I ask him for financial help during maternity leave?

I'm not sure I could save up enough to take a good amount of time off and still have my bills covered. I feel bad about asking for help as I've always been extremely independent.

I will be able to bring my baby with me to work on most days, just not when my kids at work are sick.

I'm not sure it's a good idea to bring the baby around other kids so early in her life.

I need help please, personal experience or opinions is greatly appreciated.

**Update for anyone who cared**

I did talk to my SO, I hope I didn't make him out to be some horrible person. It's just my own personal reservations about asking for help. We've been together for a long time and have always kept bills separate besides rent and other shared utilities, mainly because he has so much school debt and we used to make the same amount of money.

He now makes 4x as much as I do, and I never wanted him to feel like because he has this new job, I could just take time off and leave the financials to him.

We agreed to start a savings account that we will BOTH contribute to monthly and it will accumulate enough money to cover bills while I am out of work.

I will be taking 6 weeks of maternity leave. I am at a high risk for PPD and my doctors are afraid if I go back to work too early, it could heighten my chances of "not enjoying" our first child.

Thank you to everyone who responded, it's always nice to see people taking their time to help out!

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