the only thing you might have to worry about is whether you get paid the full period of your leave - they can't stop you leaving early - and if need be, i'm sure you could get a med cert for stress to cover that week... with my employer, you can take mat leave at any point after 20 weeks i think - the only thing is, you only get half your mat leave paid then, the rest after you've had the bub, so you may have a period of LWOP kwim?