Pregnancy Disability Leave
Contents:
Short-Term Disability and Pregnancy Leave
Even if giving birth to a baby may seem to be rather common, it is still one of the most important events in the life of a woman. The frequency of this event is close to 1%. In other words, in average a woman gives birth to a baby once in her life (here the word “in average” should be stressed). When the time is coming up to the labor, it becomes harder for a future mother to do the things she usually does.
It becomes rather hard to be at work for the whole day, stand up for a long time or simply get to work considering that we are living in cosmopolitan cities. Government being interested in a healthy woman that is able to give a birth to a baby and thus contribute to the overall population, takes care of a future mother and gives her an opportunity to spend the rest of the time till labor happen in a calm atmosphere. A woman is allowed to take a disability leave, thus way she is able to get ready for the process of labor.
Here we speak about a maternity leave that every pregnant woman can take if she is officially employed and has compulsory insurance provided by social insurance companies.
According to the legislation, a maternity leave starts 70 days before the supposed day of the labor. There is 56 days more after the happy event. Overall, a maternity leave is 126 days. In order to take a maternity leave a woman should be officially registered in a maternity welfare clinic. This clinic will give her a disability leave.
There are specific cases, when a woman gives birth to several babies, labor happens before the 37th week or there are some complications after labor. In this case, the maternity leave is prolonged for 2 weeks. In this case, it is 140 days (70-70).
An additional 2-weeks disability leave is also given by the clinic where a mother is registered. Firstly, the doctors write a fact from the history of pregnancy down in the delivery record. Then, the Chief of Medicine certifies it by signing and putting on it an official seal of the hospital.
There are cases, when a woman needs to take a disability leave on the 30th week of pregnancy and, suddenly, labor happens within 10 days. In this case, you also will be allowed to spend the time you should spend on a maternity leave. It won’t be counted by summarizing 56 days before and 70 days after. This will be counted as complicated labor and your leave will be 130 days.
For those women who were injured during the Chernobyl catastrophe and have 1-4th rank there is an increase of the maternity leave days implied. Overall, it can be up to 180 days (90 before and 90 after).
We need to remind you here once again that only those women who are officially registered at a hospital or a maternity welfare clinic have the right to take a disability leave.
Let’s speak about the case when a future mother doesn’t have any desire to go to a clinic or a hospital. In this case, she also has a right to take an official disability leave, only the time of it will be different. In case the labor goes smoothly, it will be 56 days. In case of a premature birth, any complications or if several babies are born, it will be 70 days. A 90-days disability leave will be given to those women who were injured during the Chernobyl catastrophe and have 1-4th rank.
If the labor occurs much earlier than it should, in other words, if a mother gives birth to a baby before the 30th week, she has a right to have a rest for 140 days on condition that her baby has survived. If the baby has died, the time of a disability leave will be 70 days. In this case, it is given by the maternity hospital where labor occurs.
There are cases when a mother is already on a maternity leave taking care of her first baby (or maybe several babies). According to the legislation, she will also have a right to take a maternity leave on usual conditions. It will be fully paid for.
If a future mother is simply having a holiday and labor happens, in this case, as any other woman she has a right to take a maternity leave. It will start once a doctor signs a maternity leave paper. Later on, you’ll have a chance to spend the rest of days from your holiday having a rest.
How is a Maternity Leave Paid For?
The payment of a disability leave for officially employed mothers is calculated the following way: a payment a mother receives in average for an hour (or for a day) is multiplied by the number of working days (working hours) that are included in the overall period of the leave.
For women that are not officially employed the payment is calculated the same way. However, in their case, the holidays and days declared to be non-working according to the law are not taken into account. An average salary is multiplied by the number of working days.
Our law implies that these financial help will be given to a woman each month during the course of the leave. However, in reality the whole sum is often paid to a woman all at once.
In order to calculate the sum itself the earnings of a woman for the last 6 months before the leave are taken into account. In a case when a future mother hasn’t managed to work for 6 months, the months during which she officially worked are taken into account. In case when a mother is already on a maternity leave, the sum of the payment will take into account the salary she received each month in average according to her rate per hour.
Of course, a company where a woman is officially employed is responsible for paying a woman this sum. This is usually done on the days when a woman officially receives her salary. A woman should go to the accounts department and show the document – the disability leave sheet.
The fund of state insurance also gives the payment to those mothers who are entrepreneur. This is only on condition that they are registered as individual entrepreneurs. The payment is usually given 10 days after it has been assigned to be given.
Each mother should remember that while she’s on the maternity leave there won’t be any sums that are equal to an average month salary given every month. This payment will be different and it will be provided by the state insurance fund. If a woman is not officially employed, she will receive a payment from social welfare companies. The sum that is supposed to be given nowadays is obviously not enough. Authorities should think this over on the level of legislation.
Video: Short Term Disability for Pregnancy