# Surrogacy and maternity leave



## TerriWW (Mar 8, 2007)

Hi eveeryone. Can anyone help with this question.

I am in a civil partnership. I carried our first son and my partner has been trying to get pregnant for 2.5 years with our 2nd child. She has been told her chances are very low due to her thin lining and they'ver tried everything to thicken it so I am going to be a 'surrogate' for her embryos. The child will obviously still be mine too so it's a little different to the 'average' surrogate if there is such a thing.

Our intention however was that my partner would be the primary carer and she would have the maternity leave' but having done some reading up it appears she isn't allowed the materntity leave. Am I correct? I was going to have some time off just to recover from the birth but ju was to be off with the baby from the birth. Has anyone found any resolution to this? It there a way around it so she can take the maternity leave and I can just arrrange a couple of months off with my work around the birth time?

Any suggestions welcome.

We were also hoping ju would breast feed. I would do the initial few days/weeks to give the colostrum etc and get my milk established but we were hoping to artificially induce lactation in ju so she could continue. Does anyone know anything about this or have any experience or advice.

Many thanks

Terri


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## NatGamble (Mar 1, 2007)

Hi Terri

Yes as lgft says there is no right to maternity leave for the intended mother under the current law.  It's because the process for claiming maternity leave is very prescriptive and depends on you having certain paperwork (the MATB1 etc) that you get as a pregnant woman.  Adoption leave rights don't help as they only apply where a child is newly placed with you by an adoption agency.

This is more Louise's area of law than mine, but it's something we've just had to look into for some clients very recently, and there doesn't seem to be any way around the rules.  If we come up with anything we'll let you know, but I have to say we're not very optimistic at this stage unless there's a change in the law.

As a civil partner, your other half would get a fantastic whole two weeks paternity leave!

It is worth negotiating with your employer to see if they will give more on a discretionary or contractual basis.  Many do.

Natalie
[email protected]


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## OD2 (Oct 1, 2007)

There's more information on inducing lactation than you could dream of here:  www.asklenore.info and I understand that she's happy to respond to emails too.  

I haven't tried it (yet) myself, but a few people from Surrogacy UK have successfully fed their babies and it must be absolutely amazing in terms of bonding with the baby. I'm currently weighing up whether to try it or not - there's obviously no guarantee that it'll work (enough "normal" women struggle) plus even to try it has implications for work if your partner's working full time away from home at the moment. Basically, as well as taking various drugs, you have to pump your breasts every 3 hours (including at night) for about six weeks before the baby's likely to arrive, in order to bring your milk supply in.  As our surrogate has a track record of delivering early, this means that I'd have to stop work 2 months before the due date. 

I've also heard of people "breast" feeding with formula through some sort of pump arrangement - i can't claim to understand it at all but I'm sure Lenore would know what I mean!

Really good luck to you both - I do hope that everything works out for you.

F


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## TerriWW (Mar 8, 2007)

sorry for the delay in replying. I just wanted to thank you all for your replies they are really helpful.

Thanks again and best of luck


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## Pink fairy (Apr 5, 2008)

Just a load of fluff really!!  We're not entitled to anything, is this the govenments way of putting more people off the idea hoping that (and I'm sure it applies to many) they won't be able to afford to give up work so ultimately won't be able to go through with a surrogacy arrangement.

Who do they expect will look after the new baby??  why does a parental order mean nothing?


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