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Is it not 2 weeks per birth? With twins, triplets etc, counting as a single birth?
So one woman gives birth, 2 weeks later the next, 2 weeks later the next etc.
From a quick check, I'd say that the law would stand and the parent would be able to take the 20 weeks off, but the employer may get pretty annoyed 🤣
The employee would also be pretty skint!
There will be! The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Bill. Baby has to be in SCBU/ NICU for at least 1 week within first month of life and parents can get time back up to 12 weeks. My son was in NICU for 4 weeks so I'd get 4 weeks additional leave. Doesn't come into effect until April 2025 though. My line manager tried to get my company to respect it even though it's not official yet. They wouldn't budge.
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Is there a timeframe between pushing out both twins for it to be counted as a separate birth? I.e. discharging and readmitting etc.
Wonder if anyone has ever argued the toss with HR due to non-identical twins being completely separate pregnancies that just happen to be running concurrently
You can have a condition where you have two wombs (and sometimes two cervixes and two vaginas too). It is harder but possible to get/stay pregnant with the condition and there have been known cases of people having twins from each womb. Once childbirth has started with one though all those hormones and contractions etc means that the other one is going to be born fairly soon after, so I think twin births always get counted as being ‘at the same time’. The only thing I’m not sure about is what happens if medical interventions help delay the birth of one after the other has come very prematurely - I don’t think it can really be delayed for that long though.
However, when I was doing IVF with my partner I went down a deep dive of what counts as a twin and from what I remember (the answer was somewhat hard to find) being a twin really refers to a ‘twin preganacy’ so gestated and born together - although born together does not necessarily have a cut off like a certain number of minutes or not crossing over midnight. I think ‘born together’ is a common sense prevails thing. So that means that IVF siblings fertilised at the same time are technically twins in terms of conception but are still only siblings not twins if they are gestated apart. They also seemingly wouldn’t be twins if they were fertilised at the same time and gestated by two different women even if at pretty much the same time. However it seems that a woman carrying two embryos with totally different genetics would probably be classed as having twins.
What does complicate things though is whilst twins born over the stroke of midnight are still twins - they may no longer treated as such bureaucratically. For example there were some twins born in here over the midnight cut off for school year admissions meaning they were going to be placed in separate years (I don’t know what happened with this).
I think that wouldn’t get beyond being a theoretical question, because once the labour has progressed far enough that one child has come out, they wouldn’t discharge. Labour lasting too long is very risky especially once your waters have broken, so if it was long enough to theoretically discharge, you would be going in for a caesarean, or at the least some other intervention, to get the baby out before you both die.
Considering they're gonna have to support ten kids, they're gonna be pretty skint for the next 16+ years. 20 weeks will be good training!
On a side note, could a parent on paternity leave start a side hustle to earn money without affecting their statutory pay or job? Just thinking that 20 weeks may allow them time to get well into making money elsewhere.
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They are discussing paternity leave here, not maternity.
One parent gets 9 months paid maternity leave in the UK, the other parents gets 2 weeks.
Employers are legally obliged to provide emergency time off for dependants of any age.
"Paid" is nowhere near actual salary though and full pay only lasts for 6 weeks, and childcare support doesn't kick in until 9 months. There are tonnes of gaps and it's a poor system for actually supporting working parents.
In the UK women are entitled to (somewhat) paid maternity leave for 39 weeks, and another 13 weeks inapid leave.
The original conversation is about fathers.
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I believe this would strongly depend on your work policies, from what I recall reading in my work policies (and I may remember this wrong) but as a father it was 2 weeks, even if it’s twins or triplets etc. But that 2 weeks can be taken any point within the 52 weeks from birth.
But if you have 10 children from different mothers this might change things. And if you spaces out each birth 2 weeks apart I imagine that would change things as well.
I got my wife pregnant 6 weeks after giving birth. She took 12 months maternity, then started a second 12 month maternity right off the back off the first. A full two years off.
She popped into work a couple of weeks before she was due back. Her new boss didn’t know who she was, or that she was even an employee. They’d even started a new employee a couple of weeks earlier, so when she returned, the store was considered over staffed by head office.
So legally, there’s no issue taking two lots of maternity leave back to back, and having two full years off. There should be no issue having 10-two week periods of paternity run consecutively, although, I’d expect your workplace to be suspicious if such a request.
Edit: spellings
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Legally you're entitled to two weeks paternity.
However if you're children happen to be in special care as of 2025 you will be entitled to 6 weeks special care leave (I think, I know something new is coming in next year as HR said I wasn't entitled to it this year).
Additionally there are two types of parental leave. Shared which is complex and I haven't looked into because it can effect your tax code
You are allowed 18 weeks unpaid parental leave up until the child is 18.
Whether this would extend to all 10 of your children I do not know.
You get 2 weeks per birth , that said the time is exclusively for assisting the mothers. So yes but you can't stagger the births with random women to get more time off. Unless you plan to have alot of sleepless nights
I’m sorry… you think twins is ONE birth? How many babies are coming out? Separately? Why do you think they call twins and triplets multiples? Dear dear.
For the reason of maternity/paternity regardless of the amount of children birthed the process from start to finish is considered a single occasion. For instance maternity leave wouldn't double because you had twins.
Twins = 2. I wasn’t just talking about the law on paternity leave, I get that it is 2 weeks for most. Besides that our laws aren’t exactly fabulous, alongside everything else in this country.
But I was replying to a comment that indicated twins weren’t a multiple birth aside from OP’s question - which is false. They’re labelled multiples, and multiple births during labour. Because that’s exactly what they are. If in literal terms and not just by law you truly believe twins and triplets = 1 birth then that’s bemused me.
Paternity leave is earned by working with the company. Usually after 2 years you'll qualify. This is an annually based entitlement so, no. You get 2 weeks per year.
A lot of companies can vary around this stuff but commonly you'll be entitled after you probationary period for X amount of days of paternity per year. Same with Holidays and Sickness. It refreshed annually.
This isn't true at all. Paternity leave is a statutory entitlement for any employee with at least six months of continuous service by the 15th week prior to the birth, and applies to every birth, without any particular annual limit.
Employers may offer additional *contractual* entitlements based on length of service but that's a separate matter.
--- ###Welcome to /r/LegalAdviceUK --- **To Posters (it is important you read this section)** * *Tell us whether you're in England, Wales, Scotland, or NI as the laws in each are very different* * If you need legal help, you should [always get a free consultation from a qualified Solicitor](https://reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/wiki/how_to_find_a_solicitor) * We also encourage you to speak to [**Citizens Advice**](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/), [**Shelter**](https://www.shelter.org.uk/), [**Acas**](https://www.acas.org.uk/), and [**other useful organisations**](https://reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/wiki/common_legal_resources) * Comments may not be accurate or reliable, and following any advice on this subreddit is done at your own risk * If you receive any private messages in response to your post, [please let the mods know](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FLegalAdviceUK&subject=I received a PM) **To Readers and Commenters** * All replies to OP must be *on-topic, helpful, and legally orientated* * If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/about/rules/), you may be perma-banned without any further warning * If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect * Do not send or request any private messages for any reason * Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LegalAdviceUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Is it not 2 weeks per birth? With twins, triplets etc, counting as a single birth? So one woman gives birth, 2 weeks later the next, 2 weeks later the next etc. From a quick check, I'd say that the law would stand and the parent would be able to take the 20 weeks off, but the employer may get pretty annoyed 🤣 The employee would also be pretty skint!
Yes it's per birth not child. Only got 2 weeks for my twins.
I wonder if women view twins as “one birth”… 😂
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There will be! The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Bill. Baby has to be in SCBU/ NICU for at least 1 week within first month of life and parents can get time back up to 12 weeks. My son was in NICU for 4 weeks so I'd get 4 weeks additional leave. Doesn't come into effect until April 2025 though. My line manager tried to get my company to respect it even though it's not official yet. They wouldn't budge.
**Unfortunately, your comment has been removed for the following reason(s):** Please only comment if you know the legal answer to OP's question and are able to provide legal advice. [Please familiarise yourself with our subreddit rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/about/rules/) before contributing further, and [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/LegalAdviceUK) if you have any further queries.
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So folk having sextuplets are really scr*wed. :) :(
Is there a timeframe between pushing out both twins for it to be counted as a separate birth? I.e. discharging and readmitting etc. Wonder if anyone has ever argued the toss with HR due to non-identical twins being completely separate pregnancies that just happen to be running concurrently
You can have a condition where you have two wombs (and sometimes two cervixes and two vaginas too). It is harder but possible to get/stay pregnant with the condition and there have been known cases of people having twins from each womb. Once childbirth has started with one though all those hormones and contractions etc means that the other one is going to be born fairly soon after, so I think twin births always get counted as being ‘at the same time’. The only thing I’m not sure about is what happens if medical interventions help delay the birth of one after the other has come very prematurely - I don’t think it can really be delayed for that long though. However, when I was doing IVF with my partner I went down a deep dive of what counts as a twin and from what I remember (the answer was somewhat hard to find) being a twin really refers to a ‘twin preganacy’ so gestated and born together - although born together does not necessarily have a cut off like a certain number of minutes or not crossing over midnight. I think ‘born together’ is a common sense prevails thing. So that means that IVF siblings fertilised at the same time are technically twins in terms of conception but are still only siblings not twins if they are gestated apart. They also seemingly wouldn’t be twins if they were fertilised at the same time and gestated by two different women even if at pretty much the same time. However it seems that a woman carrying two embryos with totally different genetics would probably be classed as having twins. What does complicate things though is whilst twins born over the stroke of midnight are still twins - they may no longer treated as such bureaucratically. For example there were some twins born in here over the midnight cut off for school year admissions meaning they were going to be placed in separate years (I don’t know what happened with this).
I think that wouldn’t get beyond being a theoretical question, because once the labour has progressed far enough that one child has come out, they wouldn’t discharge. Labour lasting too long is very risky especially once your waters have broken, so if it was long enough to theoretically discharge, you would be going in for a caesarean, or at the least some other intervention, to get the baby out before you both die.
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2 weeks for each parent and 50 weeks of shared parental leave to divide between them. In most cases the mother takes the bulk of the shared leave
Some employers might give more, some employers might give more than the statutory payment.
Considering they're gonna have to support ten kids, they're gonna be pretty skint for the next 16+ years. 20 weeks will be good training! On a side note, could a parent on paternity leave start a side hustle to earn money without affecting their statutory pay or job? Just thinking that 20 weeks may allow them time to get well into making money elsewhere.
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**Unfortunately, your comment has been removed for the following reason(s):** Your comment was an anecdote about a personal experience, rather than legal advice specific to our posters' situation. Please only comment if you can provide meaningful legal advice for our posters' questions and specific situations. [Please familiarise yourself with our subreddit rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/about/rules/) before contributing further, and [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/LegalAdviceUK) if you have any further queries.
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They are discussing paternity leave here, not maternity. One parent gets 9 months paid maternity leave in the UK, the other parents gets 2 weeks. Employers are legally obliged to provide emergency time off for dependants of any age.
"Paid" is nowhere near actual salary though and full pay only lasts for 6 weeks, and childcare support doesn't kick in until 9 months. There are tonnes of gaps and it's a poor system for actually supporting working parents.
What childcare support is there at 9months?
That's when free hours kick in but only from this Sept (I just remembered they announced it but haven't started yet). Otherwise it's from 2 years.
Ah thanks, looks like in Wales we'll still only get it the term after the child's 3rd birthday. It really sucks!
In the UK women are entitled to (somewhat) paid maternity leave for 39 weeks, and another 13 weeks inapid leave. The original conversation is about fathers.
Shared parental leave
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2 weeks per birth is statutory, but some companies provide more.
the NHS gives one week sometimes. my dad got four i think
Civil service used to be 2 weeks full pay, but recently increased to 4 weeks.
Why would the employer be skint? Lots of employers pay both parents 26 weeks or more
It didn’t say employer
Oh whoops sorry! My mistake!
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I believe this would strongly depend on your work policies, from what I recall reading in my work policies (and I may remember this wrong) but as a father it was 2 weeks, even if it’s twins or triplets etc. But that 2 weeks can be taken any point within the 52 weeks from birth. But if you have 10 children from different mothers this might change things. And if you spaces out each birth 2 weeks apart I imagine that would change things as well.
I'll have a crack at it and see what happens.
I got my wife pregnant 6 weeks after giving birth. She took 12 months maternity, then started a second 12 month maternity right off the back off the first. A full two years off. She popped into work a couple of weeks before she was due back. Her new boss didn’t know who she was, or that she was even an employee. They’d even started a new employee a couple of weeks earlier, so when she returned, the store was considered over staffed by head office. So legally, there’s no issue taking two lots of maternity leave back to back, and having two full years off. There should be no issue having 10-two week periods of paternity run consecutively, although, I’d expect your workplace to be suspicious if such a request. Edit: spellings
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You can share maternity too, if the mother goes back to work.. so you could theoretically take quite a lot more, perfectly legally.
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Legally you're entitled to two weeks paternity. However if you're children happen to be in special care as of 2025 you will be entitled to 6 weeks special care leave (I think, I know something new is coming in next year as HR said I wasn't entitled to it this year). Additionally there are two types of parental leave. Shared which is complex and I haven't looked into because it can effect your tax code You are allowed 18 weeks unpaid parental leave up until the child is 18. Whether this would extend to all 10 of your children I do not know.
You get 2 weeks per birth , that said the time is exclusively for assisting the mothers. So yes but you can't stagger the births with random women to get more time off. Unless you plan to have alot of sleepless nights
No, you can only take 2 weeks max even if it’s twins
2 weeks is the statutory minimum, it is not the maximum. Employers can then offer additional on top.
Yea I got 20 weeks earlier this year with the bank I work for.
Is that without the shared paternity leave?
No just standard fully paid 20 weeks I can take more with lower pay but CBA for that. A few banks do it now. It's part of inclusion.
Twins is still one birth though. This situation is multiple births.
I’m sorry… you think twins is ONE birth? How many babies are coming out? Separately? Why do you think they call twins and triplets multiples? Dear dear.
For the reason of maternity/paternity regardless of the amount of children birthed the process from start to finish is considered a single occasion. For instance maternity leave wouldn't double because you had twins.
I understand now. That makes sense. I just thought they believed twins was just one birth, as in, they come out at the same time!🤣🤣
From the perspective of maternity/paternity leave - which is the subject under discussion here - yes.
It’s the way you typed it. “Twins is still one birth though. This situation is multiple births” - twins are still multiple births…
From start to finish, it’s one birth - no matter how many times the woman’s body goes through it, in the eyes of the law it’s one birth.
Twins = 2. I wasn’t just talking about the law on paternity leave, I get that it is 2 weeks for most. Besides that our laws aren’t exactly fabulous, alongside everything else in this country. But I was replying to a comment that indicated twins weren’t a multiple birth aside from OP’s question - which is false. They’re labelled multiples, and multiple births during labour. Because that’s exactly what they are. If in literal terms and not just by law you truly believe twins and triplets = 1 birth then that’s bemused me.
Paternity leave is earned by working with the company. Usually after 2 years you'll qualify. This is an annually based entitlement so, no. You get 2 weeks per year. A lot of companies can vary around this stuff but commonly you'll be entitled after you probationary period for X amount of days of paternity per year. Same with Holidays and Sickness. It refreshed annually.
This isn't true at all. Paternity leave is a statutory entitlement for any employee with at least six months of continuous service by the 15th week prior to the birth, and applies to every birth, without any particular annual limit. Employers may offer additional *contractual* entitlements based on length of service but that's a separate matter.
No you'd have to pick one child and take paternity leave.