Uk mamas...how long are you/did you take off work for maternity before you went back?

Question

I wanted to put - went back to work less than a month just in case any dad's were doing paternity instead but I ran out of options.
Just curious really. A lot of women don't seem to get much maternity leave paid in America, SMP is 9 months here but obviously it's not great pay. Makes me wonder how many people go back to work earlier because they need the money, or simply because they want to.

Answer

6 months. I can’t afford any longer 😞

Answer

I'm very lucky, I'm a civil servant and get 6 months on full pay, then 3 months SMP then 3 months nothing.

Answer

I will be going back to work at 6 months as I get 6 months full pay from work. We can’t afford for me to go to SMP after that as I am the big earner

Answer

I left 11 weeks before my due date and never went back. 
They made it impossible for me to; only offering me my old hours (long days) when they originally promised me part time, they also took back their offer of giving me discount for my Daughter (worked in a nursery) so they knew I couldn’t afford to pay for her to be in childcare full time whilst working; it wouldn’t of been worth my time. 
So I didn’t go back. 
I wasn’t too upset about it tbf. 🤣

Answer

I work for The NHS and they pay us as well as receiving SMP. Both make it so I’m not actually much short of my wages each month. 
So I do feel very lucky to have been able to take 9 months off. Probably just over 10 months including annual leave. 
It finishes 24th this month so until september I’m on annual leave and plan on doing a bit of overtime, could do with getting some cash coming in

Answer

I got paid 32 weeks full pay from Work Work then the rest up to 52 weeks with 90% of my wage then I took 8 weeks holiday from what I had accumulated in the year I was of , so I got it really good with my job gonna do the same with this pregnancy ￼

Answer

I’m the same as Emma, but managed to save £3000 to cover bills etc through maternity so my SMP was mainly for me to go out and do stuff whilst on maternity. Although the last couple of months were hard and my partner paid for me.
I can’t remember the details but I’m sure you can change your return date with a certain amount of notice.

Answer

I am taking 7 months. I work in the NHS so am lucky that for 6 months I get 90% of my salary. Then using annual leave.

Answer

I run my own business so I'm planning on taking some time out to recover and then I'll go back to making sure the business is okay. I've got cover in place for certain things so I can focus on the baby.

Uk mamas...how long are you/did you take off work for maternity before you went back?

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