Congratulations! You’re welcoming a new child into your life. And with everything you have to plan for, one important part you can’t afford to pass over is preparing for your parental or maternity leave.
You want to be sure you’re aware of the laws that protect you as a pregnant employee, the spouse of a pregnant employee, or as someone who is adopting, so you can protect your job while you take time away to care for your baby. Aside from the legal aspect of your parental leave, you also want to consider the job-related tasks you want to have in order, so your role is covered while you’re out.
Here are some tips to keep in mind as you prepare to go on parental leave. The sooner you start to prepare, the better.
Know Your Rights
One of the most important things to understand is the fact that you have rights throughout your pregnancy and/or during your maternity or parental leave.
Your job is likely protected under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which allows you up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave from work to care for a newborn, adopted child, or foster child. This only applies if you’ve been working in the United States for more than a year and your employer has at least 50 employees. Otherwise, you aren’t eligible to receive that protection. However, your company may still offer its own form of parental leave if you’ve been employed for less than a year.
If you find out you’re pregnant or start planning to become pregnant or adopt, you want to research your state and company parental leave guidelines for more details.
Also, to ensure you’re up to date with protections for pregnant women, you should familiarize yourself with the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
Communicate With Human Resources
Once you know your child is on the way and are prepared to announce it to others, your company’s human resources department should be one of the first places you go. When communicating with HR, you should ensure you’re clear about your company’s leave policy and the FMLA forms you need to complete.
Also, find out if your retirement match will continue while you’re under FMLA and how to add your newborn to your health insurance after giving birth.
Other points to consider during your communication with the HR department include:
- Negotiating the duration of your leave.
- Exploring flexible work options when you return to work, such as a phased reentry or working from home.
- Developing an emergency plan for if you go into labor while you’re at work. This document should include your delivery plan, the contact information for your OB-GYN, doula, midwife, significant other, emergency contacts, and the hospital you plan to give birth at. You can also share this information with your manager and a few trusted colleagues as back up.
Prepare Your Job Tasks
How you prepare for your job-related tasks to be managed while you’re on leave will greatly depend on your position.
You will likely collaborate with your team about your leave. You want to determine who will take over your responsibilities, how much time you’ll have off, and how you’ll transition back to the office after your parental leave.
If you know who will be covering your position while on parental leave, take the necessary time to teach the details of your job. In some cases, you won't have a chance to brief your replacement in advance. If that's the case, you should find a way to communicate the details of your position in writing or through video, so the person knows how to carry out your job in your absence.
Finally, an essential part of preparing for your parental or maternity leave is to create a communication plan with your office outlining your check-in plan if you plan to communicate with the team while you’re out. If you don’t intend to check in, you’re not required to. Just be sure to communicate that to your team.
Have An Emergency Plan In Place
Even if you have the best plan, if you're pregnant, this can come with twists and turns, so having an emergency plan in place will help prepare you and your company for your time away.
Points to consider in your emergency plan include:
- What you’ll do if you go into labor early
- What you’ll do if you have to go on bedrest unexpectedly
- What you’ll do if you have to be on maternity leave longer than expected
- What you’ll do if your baby comes later than your due date
- What you’ll do if you can’t make it back to the office and have items at work that you need
Post Parental Or Maternity Leave Plans
Eventually, your leave will come to an end in what will likely feel like a blink of an eye. So, it’s essential to plan for your return to work.
In the weeks before returning to work, be sure to touch base with your manager and the co-workers on your team if you haven’t remained in touch throughout your leave. You might want to start being looped into matters, so you’re in the know leading up to your return or not. That’s your choice.
As you plan to return to work, be sure you’re clear about your child care plans and backup child care arrangements, as needed, and how you’ll add a new baby to your current schedule while working.
While everything won’t go as planned, it’s great to have options for how you’ll prepare for maternity or parental leave, manage your time away and return to work once it’s over.
