When did you start maternity leave?

[belfie]

I hope this is the right place to ask this. Just curious when people tend to go on mat leave & how they found it? Was it just right? Did you wish you'd finished earlier or later?

I'm due Oct 1st with my first... and was going to stop at end Aug (just over 35 weeks)... then decided to change it and stop 22nd Aug (just over 34 weeks) - having just seen a colleague struggling in her last few weeks prior to going on leave... I thought why do it to myself!?!

I'm in a very lucky situation in that i get 12 wks paid mat leave and I can work from home (usually do 1 day a week at home). Oh and it's a f/t desk job with a commute of ~45-60mins each way on PT in melb... so saying, things have been reasonable in terms of getting a seat so far!
But I can't help but think that every extra week of mat leave I take before bubba comes, is a week earlier I need to go back, with bubba being less than 1 y.o.!

So now i'm toying with just doing a "phase-down" approach (which my work are supportive of). So then I might work till 36 weeks, but the last three weeks would be one day less per week.. i.e. 4 days, 3 days, then only 2 days in the last week.

What did other people do? what worked? what would you do differently? And any wise advice for me?

Thanks!

[SamiH]

Belfie - feels like we stalk each other LOL

1st - I finished at 34 wks but only cos it was then Christmas and he was due 07/02 and i didn't wanna go back after new year for a week only. Got a bit bored by the end cos all my friends were back at work and I had nuthing to do but wait
2nd - 36 weeks and found it perfect
this time - planning for 36 wks

I too get 12 wks paid mat leave - however in my industry i can't wean down so to speak because if I finish up at say week 38 and working 2 days, that is the rate my mat leave would get paid out - so I would just double check you will still get paid full-time mat leave, and not the days you finish up on KWIM?

Also in my industry we have to stop 6 weeks before unless certified ok to work closer to EDD. But GP is fine doing certification.

So, you could tell work you plan to stop at 36 (my personal recommendation then you have a few weeks hopefully of sleep ins) but if a week out you feel like working a week extra or vice versa, they should be ok with that.

My 20 cents worth anyway

[Olive]

i was due to finish as 36 weeks but was advised to stop ealier due to bubs been small, finished at 34 weeks had sophie at 38+4

[Serendypyty]

I stopped work at 35 weeks, but I was going to work up until I was 38-39 weeks. I was told I have pre-eclampsia and I'm on BP meds now, and the doctors advised me against going back to work. This actually made me upset because we have quite a big mortgage and I was totally stressing about money, which is why I was going to work so close to my due date. My DH said that we would find a way around the money issue and he has been really supportive about me being at home.

In hindsight I think it's much better to finish a little earlier if you can, because if I had kept working closer to my due date, I wonder what sort of harm I may have done to bub. Also, I had been so busy at work that I don't think I realised how exhausted I was!!

[satya]

I started mine today. Yay!!!!!!

I'm 37 weeks today (by LMP) or 38 weeks on Sunday (per the early scans). I was probably ready to finish up a week ago but as I had committed to finishing yesterday and my OB could see no reason for me to finish early (despite having huge sore feet) I worked right through as planned. Not bad for a 42 yo who got told by the first OB that I'd be almost certainly off work from 30 weeks due to age factors.

[Mum2twoBoys]

Hi,

Thought I would reignite this thread. I am currently only just over 5 weeks pg, but trying to get an idea of when people went on maternity leave or plan to. I am currently a fulltime nurse in a busy surgical ward and work night shifts, which are 10.5 hours long. Let me just say I dont have much time to sit around and not sure how others will be able to help my load much more as said earlier it is a very busy ward. And a lot of the time our 6-7 patients are heavy enough without having to help a pg person.

So some ideas from others would be great

[Babyluv]

Bskilner your job is very demanding, I think you just work for as long as you can or want to and don't feel guilty about taking leave when you feel you can't do it anymore.
10 hr shifts, I wouldn't cope, I've had a few of those lately and ended up in tears to my hubby saying how exhausted I was.
I am taking leave in 4 weeks woohoo, it couldn't come soon enough to be honest as i'm exhausted.