Being on maternity leave does not change your rights to further periods of maternity leave and pay.

You continue to be an employee during your maternity leave and have continuous service. Therefore, the normal rules for qualifying for maternity pay for your next baby apply.

You should give your employer notice to take maternity leave and claim maternity pay again.

You may not have earned enough in the relevant calculation period to qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP). If you do not qualify for SMP for your next baby you may be able to claim Maternity Allowance. Remember that holiday pay and SMP are treated as earnings when working out how much SMP or Maternity Allowance you could claim.

You have the same right to return to work and to choose your new maternity leave dates as normal. Depending on how your dates fall you might be able to run the two maternity leaves together if you wish. Remember, though, you accrue holiday as normal throughout maternity leave so you should take the holiday in between the two lots of maternity leave.

If you do return to work then you have the same rights to time off for ante natal appointments, health and safety risk assessments and to return to the same job.

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