Recently two guest blogs provided us a picture of maternity leave in Mexico and Sweden. Well, fair readers, as many of you have discovered, maternity leave in the US presents a very different picture.  The US does not guaranty paid maternity leave and in some situations, your job may not even be protected.  Because there is wide disparity in what type and length of maternity leave companies offer, it’s critical to know what your employer’s policy is prior to starting to TTC.

Maternity leave has been a huge issue for us in trying to decide when to TTC, so I have had to dig through a lot of the uncertainties of leave. To give you some background, I left a big firm job that offered 12 weeks of paid maternity leave to move to the city where Mr. Blue lived. He was in the middle of a 4-year gig with a federal judge, and you just don’t leave that early without committing professional suicide. So, I took a temporary job (4 months) with a judge in the Blue City. By the time that ended, I had agreed to take a job with yet another judge, but it wasn’t going to start until July, which was 8 months after my first temporary job ended. Luckily, I found a great temporary job doing employment law. It couldn’t have worked out better! The only problem, was trying to figure out when we could start TTC with all the job chaos.

1. Is it okay to have a baby during a temporary job?

The type of job I’ll be starting next month is typically for one year and occasionally for two years. Most people working in this type of job would wait for it to end before having a baby. If I were younger or if it were only a one-year position, I would wait it out. But we don’t feel like we can wait the two years plus another year or so to get established in another job. That would put me at 33+ before we could start TTC. Luckily, I’m good friends with the current and former person to have my position, and they feel very confident that having a baby won’t be a problem. The judge is very kind and humble, really enjoys his clerks, and the job has great hours for a family. With their endorsement and my own knowledge of my future boss, we made the decision that putting this off wasn’t right for us.

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2. Will I get paid or unpaid leave? How much time will I get?

The federal government doesn’t do paid leave. Boo. Generally, employees are permitted to use vacation, sick, and annual leave, and can often borrow from their future time. For any bees working for the Feds, here‘s a starting place to find some information about the federal government and maternity leave. With some careful planning in the year or two prior to TTC, a federal employee can make sure they have at least several weeks of paid time off when their little one arrives. Never one to take the simple route, there’s one more hiccup for me. My position isn’t covered under the Leave Act, which means that I do not accrue any leave at all, sick, vacation, or otherwise. All my leave will be at the discretion of the judge. This could actually work in my favor because he decides how much time I get and how much is paid. So, I could end up with several weeks paid leave or no paid leave at all. Also, he gets to decide how much time off I can take. Essentially, until I talk to him when I’m pregnant, there’s no way to know how much time I will be able to take or whether any of it will be paid. Women who are in a situation like me, simply have to plan like they will have only a short, unpaid leave. This means that Mr. Blue and I have to make sure we have enough cash saved to cover our expenses while I’m off and a plan to take care of our LO if I go back after 6 weeks. Mr. Blue does accrue leave and is covered under FMLA (discussed below), so if I have to go back to work quickly, then he will take some time off to put off starting daycare until our LO is a bit older. Also, our mothers are both likely to jump at the chance to come spend some time with the baby for a week or two to extend our pre-daycare time a little more.

3. Am I covered under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)? Is my job protected?

FMLA and other federal laws offer pregnant women some protections. If a woman is covered under FMLA, she is entitled to 12 weeks unpaid, job-protected leave. Some employers make you use all your sick and vacation leave concurrently with FMLA leave, so check your employer’s policies! To be covered under FMLA, the general requirements are you: (1) have to work for a covered employer, which is generally any government agency or a private employer with more than 50 employees; (2) you have worked for your employer for 12 months (note, that it doesn’t have to be consecutive months); and (3) you have worked at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months prior to when your leave begins.

FMLA is a little tricky for me. I will be working for a covered employer and will have fulfilled the 1,250 hours. But if I get pregnant right away, the 12-month requirement might be a problem. I will have worked 12 months for the US Courts (4 months with the first judge and 8 months with the second judge), but there are some intricacies that may be a problem. If you’re not sure about how FMLA will apply to you, talk to Human Resources ahead of time for some informal information.

4.  Will I get “mommy tracked”?

Last, but certainly not least, everyone should consider the unwritten effects of maternity leave. I’ve seen really good female attorneys live through hell because some partner wasn’t happy with their decision to have a child when they did.  While there may not be anything your boss can legally do if they’re unhappy with your decision to start a family, they can certainly make your life miserable in other ways.  It’s unfortunate that women have to worry about being “mommy-tracked,” but it is a reality that you should consider if your profession isn’t overly baby friendly.  The legal field should be the first place to recognize and embrace a woman’s right to start a family, but it’s generally not.  There’s more work to do to make the world the place I want my daughter to grow up in!  For me, the idea of being mommy-tracked is actually incentive for me to start a family now.  I honestly don’t know that I’ll ever want to go back to firm life, but if I do, having a child in the first couple of years wouldn’t be the best career move.

Having the details of your leave be up in the air is certainly not the most comforting way to go into TTC. For us, however, it’s worth it, and we fully believe it’s the right time to start a family even without the assurance of a guaranteed paid 12-week leave like so many women have. The pros of having children now out weigh the uncertainties for us, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend this approach for everyone!

What kind of leave did/will you get? How long did you take off?