Time off for ante natal appointment

I

indebtedgal

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Hi

Does anyone know what the rule of thumb is with time off for an ante natal apt. I Know i am entitled to time off but ezxactly how long, eg is it a half day or 2 hours or is it up to employer..
 
Re: Time off for ante natal apt

as far as i know its reasonable time to get from your place of work to the appointment and then back after the appointment..... some places of employment are more casual about it. Depends what time your apts are at aswell would it not.... you can't exactly put a time limit on it, how can you say how long you are going to be waiting??? plus the stress you would be under if you thought you only had 2-3 hours off and are waiting for ages.......
 
Re: Time off for ante natal apt

The answer is as long as it takes. You never know how long you will be waiting, and how the traffic will be, so it's hard to predict. I was also talking to someone working in Dublin, who was working with people who were living down the country, and who were going to a hospital down the country, so they had to go to Drogheda/Portlaoise or possibly Mullingar. In those cases you are obviously talking about at least a half day, I think it may actually have been a whole day. Personally I tried to schedule appointments for around lunch time, or late enough in the afternoon, so I didn't miss too much of the work day. However, the priority was medical care for myself and the baby, so I wouldn't put myself out too much. I also did combined care, and scheduled GP appointments for outside work hours, where possible. In the first 6 months of pregnancy, or so, there are very few appointments, most of them are towards the end, and you will be on maternity leave for the last few hopefully.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/c...al_visits/?searchterm=ante natal appointments

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/c...conditions/leave-and-holidays/maternity_leave

Medical visits Once your pregnancy is confirmed you may take reasonable time off for medical visits connected with the pregnancy. There is no maximum or minimum amount of time off specified for these visits. Rather, you are entitled to as much time off as is necessary to attend each visit. This includes the time required to travel to and from the appointment and the time taken for the appointment itself.

You will need to provide your employer with medical evidence confirming the pregnancy, giving 2 weeks’ notice of your medical visits. You should show your appointment card if requested by your employer at any time after your first appointment. You may also take time off for medical visits after the birth for up to 14 weeks following the birth including any time taken on maternity leave after the birth. You are entitled to be paid while keeping these medical appointments both before and after the birth.

Ante-natal classesYou may also be entitled to take paid time off to attend some ante-natal classes. Your entitlement is for one set of ante-natal classes except for the last 3 classes of the set. Fathers are entitled to paid time off to attend the last 2 classes in the set of ante-natal classes.
Click to expand...

I assume congratulations are in order? Best of luck with the pregnancy and birth!!
 
Re: Time off for ante natal apt

I'm having twins so I believe I will be called nearly every 2 weeks, I just want to take the time that is reasonable, I actually work close to the hospital, but not so close to the GP (who is in the town where i live 45 mins from work). Basically I suppose I am wondering , if my appointment is at 9.45, and it takes me 15-20 mins to get to the hospital, should I come in for the 20 mins in the morning..
 
Can you get anything useful done in work in 20 mins? Have other women there been pregnant, and what did they do? If you can (and I know you can't always), I would try to schedule visits for earlier in the morning, but you can only take the appointment, and I woudn't go into work for 20 mins. One of the downsides with twins is that you will have more appointments, and I'm not sure you can do combined care, as you are classified as high risk, and your consultant will probably want to see you at every visit.

OTOH, how exciting! Double congrats!!!!!!!!!
 
Thanks,

I am the baby of the organisation, and i think the 1st to be working full time when preg so i don't know what the protocal is.. I really don't want to take advantage but for example this week my apt is at 10.30, however, i know that this week i won't be seen by the consultant till 11.30. therefore not back till 12.30 (i always have a working lunch at my desk)

I'd love not to come in befoe my apt, just have a sleep in and a relaxing breakfast etc... But that probably is taking the p***...
 
to be honest - i would not go in, if it takes you 20 -30 mins to get to work and you then have to travel to your appointment, er would be not so nice if they asked you to come in.... can you not tell a little white lie and say apt is at 10....????
 
Congrats, twin are great- we had Identical boys 11wks ago.

The other thing I would say to you is that most docs and consultants will be v careful with a twin pregnancy and so you may be signed off earlier than you expect. I suppose I'm saying you might as well get used to looking at time out of the business with 2weekly scans and possibly finishing up earlier- try not to stress out about it too much.

I was signed off to work from home 2 days a week from about 25-28wks and 4 days a week from about 32wks. I'm sure my employers were thrilled (!) but they were great about it all.

Best of luck with everything, it really is the business.
M.
 
If you worked for me I would not expect you to come in before a 10.30 appointment. I think an employer that does is unreasonable and does not value the good will that some flexibility generates.
Congratulations, I hope everything goes smoothly.
 
As someone who used flexitime to attend pre-natal appointments (and was not informed about the option to take time off) I would suggest that you take whatever time it takes. If you can schedule your appointments at the beginning or end of the day you will need to take less time off - but this isn't always possible. Good luck with your pregnancy.
 
Take whatever time it takes. You need to look after yourself and lessen the stress on your body (which will be going through enough with bearing twins!). I think that going to work for 20 mins would add to the stress of the day. If work is strict about this, then I suggest that you come to some sort of agreement that for every 3 appointment (20 mins x3 = 60 mins) you work in an extra hour somewhere. You don't need to tire yourself out by rushing in/out of work for such a short period of time? Good luck with the pregnancy....most amazing feeling in the world!
 
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