Maternity Leave

I had been doing research on maternity leave long before I ever got pregnant. For several years, my area of research as a psychologist has been issues around work and family. So maternity leave has been very important in my research. I am fortunate to live in California, which is the first state to offer Paid Family Leave. There are other forms of PAID leave available to Californians, this article gives a great summary of those leave and I will not go over it all here. (It is important to note that much of this only applies if you pay into State Disability Insurance or something similar through your paycheck. Unfortunately, state employees and teachers do not fall into this category.)

It is also important to remember that the information in the article does not talk about job protection. Fortunately, the Federal Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides job protection for up to 12 weeks. It always seems that people often confuse FMLA with many different leave options. FMLA is a federal act not a state act, each state operates differently in what they offer for family leave. So FMLA provides 12 weeks of unpaid leave for the the birth of a child, illness of a family member, or your own illness. FMLA also provides job protection and is often used concurrently with other types of leave such as the leave provided by California. FMLA also depends on the size of your company, it only applies to companies with 50 or more employees.

In addition to FMLA, Californians receive job protection through the California Pregnancy Disability Leave (CPDL) and California Family Rights Act (CFRA). Check out this site for some information. Under California law, the CPDL allows pregnant women to take a pregnancy disability leave if needed during their pregnancy for up to four months due to pregnancy, childbirth, or related conditions. The pregnancy disability leave requires that the position be held during the four months’ absence. It does not, however, require that employer to pay the employee during the four months. CFRA can be used to take additional time beyond the pregnancy disability leave. It provides 12 weeks of job protected leave to bond with the baby after birth.

My Maternity Plan

I am very fortunate that in addition to the leave available to me through disability and California Paid Family Leave, my company provides 12 weeks of partially paid parental leave. That is really generous!! They also supplement the disability pay and company provided parental leave with sick time and/or vacation time. So during my leave I will get 100% pay. Wohoo!

I plan to go on disability, with my doctor's approval, 3 weeks before me due date. So I will be working until May 15, 2009. If Baby Bear is born on her due date, I plan to be out for about 20 more weeks, so until she is about 5 months old. I will return the end of October.

Wait, there is more! The 20 weeks does not include California Paid Family Leave (CPFL), which is 6 weeks of partially paid leave to be used to bond with the baby. CPFL can be used intermittently so it does not have to be used all at once. It just has to be used within the first year of the baby's birth. My plan is to use 1 day a week for 30 weeks and return to work on a 4 day work week for the first year of Baby Bear's life.

I went over my plan with my boss and he was very fine with it and even told me that some of my work can be done from home if I needed to. I love the flexibility of my workplace and my boss!! I feel good with this plan and I feel like I will get enough time to be with Baby Bear. Now I can't wait until May 15th to start my leave!!