pregnancy, disability, maternity leave

question for the residents & beyond out there: I'm a pregnant PGY-3 in psych due in December. In California, where I live, we get a "use it or lose it" 4 weeks off prior to birth (it can't be tacked on after delivery, unfortunately) covered by disability, in addition to 6 weeks (vaginal delivery) - 8 weeks (C/S) after. Which is cool and I'm planning to use it all (and more, once I figure out how FMLA, vacation & unpaid leave all figure in), but my question is if I take off the 4 weeks before, and my baby is late, then what? Do I get retroactively "unpaid" for anything more than 4 weeks before the baby is born? Does my OB sign off on anything as far as that goes? Thanks in advance... this crap is all so needlessly complicated! 😳

fiatslug said:

question for the residents & beyond out there: I'm a pregnant PGY-3 in psych due in December. In California, where I live, we get a "use it or lose it" 4 weeks off prior to birth (it can't be tacked on after delivery, unfortunately) covered by disability, in addition to 6 weeks (vaginal delivery) - 8 weeks (C/S) after. Which is cool and I'm planning to use it all (and more, once I figure out how FMLA, vacation & unpaid leave all figure in), but my question is if I take off the 4 weeks before, and my baby is late, then what? Do I get retroactively "unpaid" for anything more than 4 weeks before the baby is born? Does my OB sign off on anything as far as that goes? Thanks in advance... this crap is all so needlessly complicated! 😳

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That's a pretty nice benefits package! When I had my daughter, I was working (before med school) and they lumped all of it together. I took 7 weeks - 1 before the delivery and 6 afterwards. They took 1 week vacation, then all my sick leave, then when the sick leave ran out, the rest of my vacation time. I'm not sure how the disability part plays in. My ob had to sign a sheet saying when my due date was, then permission to return to work.
Congrats on the baby!

fiatslug said:

question for the residents & beyond out there: I'm a pregnant PGY-3 in psych due in December. In California, where I live, we get a "use it or lose it" 4 weeks off prior to birth (it can't be tacked on after delivery, unfortunately) covered by disability, in addition to 6 weeks (vaginal delivery) - 8 weeks (C/S) after. Which is cool and I'm planning to use it all (and more, once I figure out how FMLA, vacation & unpaid leave all figure in), but my question is if I take off the 4 weeks before, and my baby is late, then what? Do I get retroactively "unpaid" for anything more than 4 weeks before the baby is born? Does my OB sign off on anything as far as that goes? Thanks in advance... this crap is all so needlessly complicated! 😳

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A girlfriend of mine in CA just delivered and utilized the 4 week disability period before her due date. She told me that once you use up that 4 weeks and you haven't delivered, you automatically convert to your maternity leave and start eating away at that. Sooo...she timed her disability to start 3 weeks before her due date, knowing that her OB (and most OBs, for that matter) wouldn't let her go later than 41 weeks. She gambled on the fact that as a primigravida with an uncomplicated and rather boring pregnancy, she would probably end up not delivering early and probably go over her EDC. Her gamble paid off, as she was induced at exactly 41 weeks and utilized every minute of her disability leave without harming her maternity leave.

If your circumstances are similar, you might want to do a similar plan. Most of all, relax and enjoy your time BEFORE and AFTER your baby arrives. You'll never have either of that kind of time back again! Congrats!

Talked with our HR people, along with our GME guru ladies. I hate this crap!

FMLA: Family med leave act. Covers up to 12 weeks of time off (preserving job and benefits)--begins from the moment you take leave, NOT (necessarily) post partum. Does not need to be taken all at once.

PDL: Pregnancy Disability Leave--covers up to 16 weeks off (preserving job & benefits) if you are disabled by pregnancy/recovery. (Normal preg post-partum "disability" is 6 weeks for vaginal & 8 weeks for c/s--I think you have to have some complications to have your OB sign off on extended disability, and I don't think it's that common, but I'm not sure. Would love it if an OB would sign off on this for more baby bonding/breastfeeding time, but doubt they can/would!). FMLA would run out during this time, but it wouldn't matter b/c you'd still be covered by PDL as far as job/benefits go. On PDL, you get 55% of your pretax salary. I've heard you can apply for an additional 6 weeks of "baby bonding time" after your 6 weeks of post-partum disability runs out, and I think that is also at 55% of pretax salary, but I'm not sure.

I have 2 weeks of vacation to throw in there too.

To take off any additional time, I would not only lose salary/disability benefits, but would also lose medical benefits. At least I know I wouldn't lose my job--they need our slave labor too much. 😉

I guess I'll just keep coming to work until I burst, to maximize time at home with the baby! I wish I were Canadian...

Good advice all. Take into account that FLMA CAN NOT be used unless you have been at your hospital for 1 yr!!!!!
🙂 D