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Pregnancy-related absence in final 4 weeks pre-EWC: automatic maternity leave start or deferred by agreement?

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Q&As

Under the Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999 (MAPLE 1999), SI 1999/3312

Subject to an earlier start being triggered by childbirth, an employee’s ordinary maternity leave (OML) begins on the earlier of:

the date she has told her employer she intends to start maternity leave under the standard notice, or, if changed, the last date she notified—provided the chosen date is not before the start of the eleventh week prior to the expected week of childbirth (EWC) (MAPLE 1999, SI 1999/3312, regs 4(1), 4(1A), 4(2)(b), 6(1)(a)); and
the day after the first day she is off work wholly or partly due to pregnancy in the final four weeks before the EWC (MAPLE 1999, SI 1999/3312, reg 6(1)(b)).

If she is absent for pregnancy-related reasons at any time in the four weeks before the EWC, OML starts automatically on the day following the first absence. For detail, see ‘When maternity leave periods start’ and ‘Absence in last four weeks before EWC’ in Practice Note: Maternity leave. MAPLE 1999, SI 1999/3312 contains no mechanism allowing employer and employee to agree that maternity leave is not triggered in these circumstances or to postpone the start until the notified date...

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Web page updated on 27/05/2026

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