How did you afford unpaid maternity leave?

Maternity leave is paid for 6 weeks usually 8 if you have a C-section. Did you have short term disablitly? If you do then you will get paid from that. Unless you get a note from your doc it's only 6 or 8 weeks. I know it sux, in Europe, you get like 2-3 years.

My husband was laid off 2 months before our 3 month baby was born and I was put on bed rest 2 weeks before I had her. It was hard and we are still trying to recover but do what you have to.

I was on bed rest for 2 months then on maternity leave. I got paid for the 2 months but not the maternity leave because I'm considered part-time. My husband was laid off 2 weeks before my maternity weeks were up so I had do go back to work early. He's a carpenter so things were slow. He went back to work about a month later so then I took a few more weeks off.

Did you already have the 12 weeks off? Or you haven't started maternity leave yet? If you haven't gone on it yet I wouldn't take the full 12 weeks. If you already went on maternity leave; you didn't ask if you got maternity leave pay? Is your husband collecting unemployment? Maybe you could go on wick until your husband gets a job.

Oh no, that's terrible. I'm so sorry to hear that. Best case senario would be he finds a job right away, so you don't have to stress about not bringing in an income. That time is definitely important for you and your baby, but if you do need to go back to work, at least your little one will have her daddy to care for her. Don't stress, as hard as that may be right now, that's the best advice I can give you. It's not good for you and your little one right now. Besides, everything always works out. I know you'll get through this better than you think! I'll be praying for your situation

I ran into this with my pregnancy. There is a difference between Family Medical Leave and what you are supposed to get paid for. Your employer is only required to *hold* your job for 12 weeks unpaid according to the Family Medical Leave Act. If you have short term disability they pay you for the amount of time your policy states. If you go past the 12 weeks with bedrest or after the birth of your child combined, they are not legally required to hold your job. I found that alot of people get the two confused and think that because they hold your job you are supposed to be getting paid during that time. I had to explain it a couple of times to my mom to get her to understand that I was covered by FMLA to have a job to go back to, but my pay was not going to be there and they didn't have to! I had to go back after 8 weeks because we couldn't afford anymore time off and my short term disability cut off at 6 weeks.

Federal law says you get 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave. If I were you, I would look into my state's legislation. In CA you can get up to 6 weeks of Paid Family Leave at 50-75% of your normal salary.

Or, there's always moving to Sweden. They get 68 weeks of job-protected, fully paid leave!

I was required to leave work at 8 1/2 months. I planned on working until my due date, but the physical stress of my job was causing me to have intense contractions. Having had pre-term labour before, I was told to stop working.

I was not paid. Usually small time companies will not pay maternity leave.

you may be able to draw un-employment for your maternity leave. im not sure but you should check in to it.