Maternity leave benefits
Hi moms 🤍 I’m currently planning ahead for maternity leave and would really appreciate hearing about your experiences and benefits.
Any insight will be appreciated!!
How long was your maternity leave, and how much of it was paid vs unpaid?
How early did you notify your job?
Were you able to extend your leave?
Did you feel financially prepared, or is there anything you wish you had planned better?
Were there any benefits you didn’t realize you had until later?
How was your transition back to work? Any tips?
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If you are getting it through the state, prepare to go a few weeks with no income. If your baby comes a week early, it's a process to submit to receive the money earlier, so that means waiting, but there's also a 1 week waiting period and then I believe you get paid the week after that. So we went 3 weeks with nothing. Prepare for that possibility
- I got 12 weeks paid through work but it ran concurrent with MA PFML benefits
- I notified at 20 weeks
- I originally planned to extend my leave to 16 weeks but the difference between my pay and the MA benefit was too much so we couldn't swing it
- since I was full pay for the 12 weeks there was no financial strain but there would've been if I was out longer. You also need to be on top of all the forms come tax time.
- I'm fully remote but the transition was still a big challenging balancing breastfeeding, pumping, and working
Howdy! I’m also from framingham 😂
My maternity leave was paid through PFML. I was paid 100% for the entire entirety of my leave, which was 12 weeks for recovery and 12 weeks for bonding with a new child, for a total of 24 weeks.
My leave was kind of a unique situation because I switched jobs just a few months before my baby arrived. I had told my original job that I was pregnant at 20ish weeks, and they did not handle it the way they should have, so I left and worked for a small family-owned (not my family) store. They knew when they hired me that I would only be there temporarily. I believe I started working there in August and my baby arrived December 1st.
I felt financially prepared. My husband’s work was also great about leave. He got 12 weeks of bonding through PFML and ended up getting 100% because his work paid him for whatever the state didn’t. I think the state paid 80% and his work paid 20%.
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