I'm here, working hard, reading everyone,,,just not posting. I'm currently in a battle to get paid maternity leave, and it's looking very real that I won't get it. I don't have time to post about it now...meant to be getting ready for playgroup.....anyway, I will post later about all my woes =p aside from it though! working is going great =)
Is that for the government one? Due to the number of months thing? I didn't qualify either I had worked a couple of weeks under - 3 months fulltime and then 3 days a week but didn't meet the time period criteria - it sucks that you can get it if you only work one day a week but if you don't meet the length of time requirement don't get it. My two are just over 2 years apart I had a year off with DD before I started looking for work and then got a job and worked till 35 weeks - I was a contractor so no paid leave to count towards the requirement. The baby bonus at the time was ok so I lived with it - I wasn't prepared to work longer than 35 weeks pregnant for the monetary difference at the time, as I was exhausted. The situation is different now without the baby bonus.

I understand that they have to have limits but I don't think that the current limits work very well - 2 years between children is not unusual - neither is being a contractor (I would prefer to be a permanent employee), if I could have got myself a job for just over 1 day a week, I probably would have gone back earlier than I did but I had to go back full-time just to get back into the workforce. If the whole aim of it is to encourage people to work then as long as meeting the minimum hours why should they be restrictive about the length of time you have to be working. If someone chooses to work 5 months full-time between children (and only 5 months due to the demands of the job being difficult while pregnant, and the care they have available for their children) then why should they not be eligible? Their contribution in tax terms won't be any less then someone doing the equivalent but spread out over 10 months.

If I was faced with same situation again but with the no baby bonus - I would try to negotiate with my employer to do one hour each week 36 - 40 weeks (as would have made me eligible - although my employer at the time would not let you work past 36 weeks) - as you only have to work one hour to count it as a working day apparently - but to me that really is a ridiculous thing to have to do, and encouraging women to work right up to due date seems not an ideal thing to me (large organisations often don't want you there past 36 weeks).