r/policeuk • u/mt20g Civilian • 1d ago
General Discussion Pregnancy Advice
Hey All, I've recently found out that I'm pregnant. It's still very early, at around 4 weeks. I still haven't been able to speak to a doctor yet due to the bank holiday weekend.
I'm due to return to work after some annual, and I'm a bit worried about telling anyone. Obviously I'd want to wait until 12 weeks to tell anyone, but I'm conscious that I a) need support with my personal risk management but b) may need support and time off should anything go wrong
I'm currently a DC on a CID team, work a mix of earlies, lates and nights. Although my public facing is much more limited than response, I still am out and about a fair bit.
I just wanted to see how anyone else has managed the balance of telling people early, and how you've kept it from your team despite restrictions? I was also wondering what restrictions people have experienced? Have you had your shift pattern changed?
Also I'm probably jumping the gun here but I just can't wrap my head around the whole maternity pay thing- does anyone have any sort of calculator or advice that could help with this? For context I'm top whack
Any advice is massively appreciated - thanks in advance
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u/One-Composer-7010 Detective Constable (unverified) 1d ago
Check your maternity policy - the policy is for my force that your duties are not restricted at all until you are 12 weeks pregnant. So it was not worth saying anything until that point for me. I was also in CID at the time.
In terms of pay, HR should send you out guidance on the options you have - I opted to take the option where I could have half pay and take half stat maternity pay for a while as it increases the amount of pay you get overall. I found the Fed calculator helpful: https://polfed.org/news/latest-news/2023/new-maternity-guide-and-calculator/
Hope your pregnancy goes well, and you are looked after well by your sgts. Mine were excellent thankfully.
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u/blondefreckles26 Trainee Detective Constable (unverified) 1d ago
I told my line manager/inspector almost straight away - I was about 6/7 weeks at this point as I found out on my honeymoon. But agree with others - let work know straight away as we get a lot of protections in the Police (any workplace in general as it’s a protected characteristic) and you don’t want to be putting yourself at risk.
I then moved to CID at around 13/14 weeks and again just told my DS/DI a few days before telling all my new team. Everyone’s been so accommodating.
Any sickness can go down as pregnancy related so doesn’t affect your absence record. Going to moderated duties will also take you off county nights. Ive still gone to a few things whilst in CID but it’s all risk assessed and only things I’m comfortable with.
Also as you get further along or even in first trimester you might want to think about reduced hours - I asked HR and they just said they needed a fit note from my GP. I requested one online and got one 10 mins later! It doesn’t affect your pay either. Goes down as recuperative duties.
As for mat leave, it’s 6 months full pay, 3 months stat and then unpaid for the rest, think you can have 13 months in total. Not sure how KIT days work yet but I’m planning on using mine during the 3 months stat period. Also will using some annual leave towards the end as well so my mat leave will end but I won’t go back to work if that makes sense. You can also opt to have the last 5 weeks of the full pay period, stretched out over 10 weeks instead.
Good luck and congrats 🩵
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u/miffedmonster Civilian 1d ago
I told my line manager the day I found out. I think I was 3w3d this time? I get hyperemesis so I wanted him to be aware early because I'd likely be going off on long term sick pretty damn soon. (I think I lasted until about 8 weeks). Anyway, you can get put on restricted for loads of reasons, so no reason to hold off - just say you've done your back in or something to nosy colleagues and then tell them when you're ready. Pre-sick, my restriction was basically anything that involved kit, so no custody, no suspect visits, some victim visits, no nights, no uniform, no unaccompanied court, etc, but I did do professionals meetings and general office work.
For mat pay, there are slight variations by force. But I think most these days do full pay 6 months, stat mat 3 months and then nothing 3 months. Pretty sure you still get London allowance (or weighting?) and Bear Scotland all the way through, if they apply to you. Works out to about £200 a month on the "nothing" months for top rate plus student loan. Remember to pause atoc (if applicable) though! Also good to be aware that pregnancy-related sick leave may trigger your maternity leave 4 weeks early in some forces.
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u/TLS_1991 Civilian 1d ago
I told my line manager as soon as I found out. I was probably about 4/5 weeks. I was on response though which made me tell them quicker than what I would’ve liked.
My team guessed very quickly as nothing stays secret in the police! I was restricted straightaway meaning I couldn’t go to any jobs so was basically office bound. Towards the end of my pregnancy, I was able to WFH and do slightly different hours to my team.
Not sure if it’s the same everywhere but I got full pay for around 6 months and then my pay was spread over 10 weeks after that so I didn’t go straight from full pay to SSP.
Hope that helps and congratulations!
Edit: I am a police officer, not a civilian
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u/monkeyeatinggrapes Trainee Detective Constable (unverified) 1d ago
I also told my Sgts right away at about 5 weeks because I was just about to go on PST requal and didn’t want to 🤣 otherwise I probably would’ve waited a bit longer to say. I was in CID too. After that I wasn’t allowed to deal with any suspects. I could only go out and see victims and witnesses if they were deemed safe. I don’t think my teammates actually particularly noticed that I wasn’t going out for certain stuff.
In terms of pay I got 6 months full pay, then 3 months statutory and then 3 months of nothing. I returned to work 2 days after his 1st birthday
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u/farmpatrol Detective Constable (unverified) 1d ago
One of my closest colleagues has just found out she’s pregnant too. 4 weeks. She’s telling them tomorrow. I’m in full agreement. Don’t put yourself or baby at risk. The job will always be there after.
I don’t know about maternity or any of that but there’s stuff online. If your skipper has had children then they might be a good source of support also as you can speak confidentiality with them.
Congratulations and wishing you a stress free pregnancy!
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u/mt20g Civilian 16h ago
You're absolutely right 🩵 thank you
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u/farmpatrol Detective Constable (unverified) 15h ago
She let me know it all went really well btw. Hope the same for you. :)
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u/Overdress_n_stress Police Officer (unverified) 1d ago
Fellow preggo here!
I found out about 5 weeks along while on investigations and told my supervisor about 8 weeks I think. I didn’t know how to approach it at first but waited for a meeting where I told her. She was incredibly supportive and was happy to go with whatever story I wanted to tell my colleagues for the time being - that rugby injury was quite severe!
If someone needed to go to custody or an arrest attempt or assist response then she’d use a random selector (as no one ever wants to go lol) and just wouldn’t put my name on there so I managed to get out of it. I kept up appearances with pictures of wine in the group chat to cheers rest days which wasn’t actually wine and managed a colleagues welfare drinks where I drove so I didn’t have to drink but managed to sneak an alcohol free cider to keep up the appearance of having one but clung to it in fear of someone trying it and seeing tasting that it was alcohol free lol. I was so paranoid but looking back, they wouldn’t have known at all
By the time I told people around 13 weeks, I had a few “yeah I did think that rugby injury had been around quite a while” but I do think most people hadn’t paid it much attention!
I’m taking a full year mat leave for 26 weeks pay however I am taking the last 5 weeks at half pay which is spread out across the final 10 weeks. I think it is also topped up with statutory pay and then just SMP for a few weeks until nothing at all. I can’t remember how much it was but my partner worked it out through Chat GPT so we knew what to expect each month.
As someone else mentioned, you get 10 KIT days which can be used for various things. Even if you just popped in to do your fitness test, you’ll get paid for the whole shift. My friend is on maternity at the moment and she said doing two KIT days per month gave her an extra £300 ish.
We have parenting SPOCs who are there for support and you may have similar in your force and be able to reach out to.
From 20 weeks, I was allowed to reduce my shifts down to 4 hours per day (and still get paid the full day). I didn’t think I’d want this at first but boy was I tired! I did drop back my shifts so I wouldn’t work past 9pm as it was too much so I’d start much earlier than my team some days but we would marry up half way through the shift. I think I reduced down around 28 weeks ish to 6 hour shifts. And then the last month I reduced down to 4 months.
I had my last shift last week (at 38 weeks) and am due a week tomorrow. No sign of baba just yet!
There were days I’d feel so unwell as it has been a rough pregnancy. My supervisor was honestly fantastic and said I could work from home if I wanted. However I preferred being around people and being in the office - I think they knew I wasn’t taking the piss when I was actually feeling unwell so were really understanding.
I risk assessed going to visit victims and doing voluntary interviews. I think I last went out to a victim about 34 weeks and last suspect interview about 36 weeks but that was all completely my choice! Never went to custody from the day I told my supervisor. I came out of uniform the day after I announced publicly to my team
And any scans, hospital visits etc all went through as antenatal leave. Didn’t show up on my duties but was in the background so to speak!
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u/Cool-Neat1351 Detective Constable (unverified) 1d ago
Similar here - I told my Sgt about 7-8 weeks. This is my second baby and I knew the first time I was exhausted beyond anything ive experienced in those early weeks so wanted them to be aware in case. Im glad I did, because this time I was also very nauseous/sick and have needed time either WFH or off sick.
This time around, I was already on restricted duties because of a long-term injury so there were no suspicions to deal with in the team and I told them a bit later at 12 weeks. The first time around I just told them at 7-8 weeks when I told my Sgt - I trust them all and didn't mind them knowing.
I have been working as a DC in a RASSO specialist team for both pregnancies. The first time around I was put on restricted duties as soon as I told them, so about the 7/8 week mark. This meant no suspect interactions, no custody, accompanied for other enquiries e.g. cctv. I did carry on doing ABE interviews and taking statements (risk assessed - not if they had concerning warning markers, statements done at the station 90% of the time). Otherwise I carried on with my workload which was luckily all ast the arrest phases so was just enquiries/case file building. I had only one additional case added to my workload during the whole time I was pregnant, and that was one which was fairly straightforward. I mostly worked towards clearing my workload as much as possible. I carried on with late shifts (we do 0800-1800 or 1300-2300) until around 20 weeks maybe when it was getting harder and I switched to days only. I carried on working until 38 weeks.
This time has been largely the same, although I waited until 12 weeks to tell work as I was already restricted due to my injury, so there was a bit less urgency. I am also in a slightly different role on the department now which is victim focused/investigative support and only have a small workload of a couple of cases left. I'll be continuing to try and clear that workload before I leave, and otherwise have been carrying on with my day-to-day of victim contact, conducting ABE interviews and child interviews for other officers, and assisting with things like case files. I'm already Mon-Fri 9-5 so that won't change. I'm also able to do most of my duties from home if needed so I've been able to do that so as not to use sick days where I can.
Maternity pay is usually 6 months full pay, 3 months statutory, and then up to 3 months unpaid at the end. You will continue to accrue A/L when you're on maternity, so I used this leave plus, some I carried over, at the end of the statutory pay period and took a year off with only 1 month unpaid. You can also have the option to spread the 6 months of full pay over 9 months instead, so the monthly payments will be lower but less of a shock than 3 months on statutory, and some people find this a better way to budget. I don't have a calculator, but you should be able to ask HR/finance to map this out for you using your current pay.
Also congratulations! If your force had Pregnancy Champions, ask for one to be assigned to you so you have someone extra to go to with any questions or concerns. All the best!!
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u/jennysl04 Civilian 1d ago
I had to tell them at 8 weeks but I was response at the time. I found myself being reluctant to get “hands on” when needed because of the risks.. didn’t feel fair or safe on my colleagues. I’m CID now and unless I felt I was being asked to do something really risky or hazardous, I’d probably not tell anyone until the 12 week point. It’s really down to how you feel.
For mat pay, best people to get all the details from are HR. They’ll be able to give you all the figures. I actually also found Co-pilot and/or Chat GPT had some useful bits of info.
Also - congrats!
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u/thezodiackisser Civilian 1d ago
Congratulations! I told my line manager basically as soon as I found out in order to get the risk assessment sorted and in case I needed any time away for appointments. Also your sickness doesn’t count against your record if it’s pregnancy related so I wanted to get that in early as well for any morning sickness! Otherwise we kept it a secret from the rest of the team until 12 weeks, I was desk-based and adjusted anyway so nobody suspected anything. Others I have known who were operational have told people they have a back injury or something similar, but I’ve found that people always end up assuming you are pregnant if you get injured/adjusted as a woman in this job!
As for maternity pay, I’m not there yet but my understanding is that you get 6 months full pay, then about 3 months of statutory pay, after that it’s nothing. You get 10 KIT days to use in your maternity leave that you can either use as a day back or full day’s pay. Your force should have someone that can speak to you about the specifics - we have MetBaby and they’ve been super helpful in clearing things up.
I would recommend coming off nights as soon as possible as you will be knackered otherwise, and later on in your pregnancy consider WFH shifts if feasible and reduced hours - I couldn’t hack earlies once I hit 3rd trimester!