Do you know what laws are set up to protect you while you are pregnant? Do you understand the rights and benefits to which pregnant women are entitled? Can you and your partner take paid leave once your baby is born? How much time off can you get if you are willing to take leave without pay?

Managing Paperwork:

• Keep all your paperwork together in a folder.
  
• Keep copies of everything.
  
• Be persistent, ask questions, make phone calls, and send inquiries until you have all the information and documentation that you need.

Salazar explains, "Documentation [of medical conditions] would be the routine medical documentation in her chart" and is easy to provide.

Ideally you will talk to your employer and try to develop a maternity-leave plan that works for both you and your company. But you must understand your legal rights to ensure that you get the time you and your baby need to have a healthy pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period.

On-the-job discrimination. You have an absolute right to work while you are pregnant. The federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA) applies to employers with 15 or more employees. It states that a company can't use your pregnancy as a reason not to hire or promote you. Employers also can't fire you because you're pregnant.

Despite the law, problems happen. Ellen Bravo, director of 9 to 5 National Association of Working Women, warns, "Discrimination against pregnant women is still commonplace and often subtle."

Finding Help

• NOW Legal Defense Fund: 212-925-6635; www.now.org
  
• ACLU Women's Rights Project: www.aclu.org/WomensRights/WomensRightsMain.cfm
  
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: 800-669-4000; www.eeoc.gov
  
• 9 to 5, The National Association of Working Women: 800-522-0925; www.9to5.org
  
• Women Employed: 312-782-3902; www.womenemployed.org
  
• Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor (contact them if your rights have been violated under FMLA): 800-959-FMLA
  
• Your state human-rights agency or state department of employment can assist you with state disability laws (see the blue pages of the phone book)

Williston, Vermont, mom Beth Thompson recalls, "I don't feel my employer discriminated, but my supervisor most certainly did. She was 15 years older than me, single, and desperately wanted to get married and start a family. She was very bitter when I informed her of my pregnancy. She even went so far as to create some new projects for me to complete during the last two months of my pregnancy, which she knew would be next to impossible for me to do at that point, such as climbing up on ladders. When I couldn't complete the project, she made a big deal about it and tried to stir up trouble with the employer." Thompson chose to leave the company after the birth of her baby rather than return to work with this woman.

Your employer can't require you to take a mandatory leave while pregnant or after the baby is born. If you wish to work during your pregnancy (and right up to the birth), you must be allowed to. If you take a leave or go on disability during your pregnancy and then become able to return to work when your condition improves, your employer must allow you to return if you choose to.

If you believe you are being discriminated against, contact the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, seek assistance from an attorney, or consult a women's rights organization.

Your risk, your choice. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that women are the only ones who can make decisions about risks to their unborn babies. This means that your employer can't remove you from a position that she feels is "dangerous" because you are pregnant. If your job involves exposure to chemicals, radiation, loud noises, extreme temperatures, smoke, or other environmental conditions that can cause harm to you or your baby, you should discuss the work conditions with your healthcare provider and decide if continuing is safe. However, your employer can't require you to leave your position: It must be your decision.

When deciding whether or not to continue in your position-assuming it's safe for your baby-certified nurse-midwife Mairi Breen Rothman of the D.C. Birth Center in Washington, D.C., suggests, "You need to consider what your job demands of you, whether you want to be doing that at eight or nine months of pregnancy, and what your finances will allow."

If you are temporarily unable to do your job because of your pregnancy and your healthcare provider agrees, your employer must give you alternate tasks or allow you to take a disability leave or a leave without pay.

Health insurance. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires that employers provide health insurance that covers pregnancy and birth related medical costs in the same way it covers other medical conditions. An additional or extra deductible or separate pay schedule that applies to pregnancy or birth is illegal. If you decide not to return to work after a pregnancy leave, Rhonda Ruiz, a mother in Birmingham, Alabama, recommends finding out what your company's policy is about health insurance. From her own experience, she learned,"Your company might have policies that require you to repay benefits received during your leave."

Disability leave. Each state has its own laws about state disability benefits, but generally you are considered "disabled" if you are medically unable to perform one or more of your job duties. Disability leave pays a percent of your regular previous pay.

Many companies have their own disability insurance policies. If your healthcare provider certifies that you are unable to continue working due to a pregnancy-related condition or due to the birth itself, you can use your company's disability leave. Your condition must be treated in the same manner in which other conditions are treated (this is governed by the PDA). So, if your employer provides paid leave for other medical conditions-anything from heart disease to a broken leg-it must provide for paid leave for pregnancy. If your company has an official policy but has bent the rules in the past for other people with any kind of disability (for example, allowed employees with cancer to take extended leaves), then the rules must be bent for you.

But this law is a double-edged sword. If your employer has a policy of firing employees who take excessive absences, you can be fired if you are consistently absent (for example, for morning sickness or prenatal appointments).Your employer can also require you to obtain a second opinion from a healthcare provider of their choosing in evaluating your disability.

Disability can be a great relief if you are experiencing problems during a pregnancy. Heather Edwards of St. Paul, Minnesota, relates, "I was thankful that such a program existed because women who have pregnancy problems are sometimes overlooked as not being really sick. I mean, even the term 'bed rest' sounds lazy."

A woman is usually considered disabled for six weeks after a vaginal birth and for eight
weeks after a C-section birth, but this can vary with a healthcare practitioner's certification. Rothman explains: "Most midwives are happy to provide whatever documentation is needed for a woman to be excused from work when complications indicate it would be best. If together we feel she needs to cut back on her hours or stop working altogether, I just ask what her workplace requires in order to excuse her, and I do whatever is needed."

Many women continue to work until the end of their pregnancies. Certified nurse-midwife Sarah Shealy Salazar, who is in private practice in American Fork, Utah, points out: "If a woman is having a healthy pregnancy, then she may choose to work until she goes into labor."

The Family and Medical Leave Act. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) applies to you if you work for a public agency (federal, state or local) or for an employer with 50 or more employees, and if you have been employed there at least 12 months and worked at least 1,250 hours in the last 12 months.

You can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month period for pregnancy, post-pregnancy recovery, or to care for a new baby. (This same law also allows leave to care for ill family members and for adopted children.)You can take this time off in one big block, or you can take it in pieces. For example, you might choose to take off the last two weeks of your pregnancy, the first two months after your baby is born, and then perhaps return to work on a part-time basis to use up the rest of the time. Thirty days notice is required for foreseeable events. (Birth is foreseeable, but things such as bed rest during pregnancy aren't.) Mary Lebeau of West Deptford, New Jersey, used FMLA to take seven weeks off and then returned on a parttime basis two to three days a week.

Under FMLA, your employer must keep your health benefits in place while you are gone-though you may have to pay premiums yourself-and must restore you to your original job or to an equivalent job with equivalent pay when you return. Your employer can't penalize you for taking the leave or allow it to affect any of your benefits.

If you and your spouse work for the same employer, you are entitled to a total of 12 weeks of unpaid FMLA leave divided between both of you in a 12-month period to care for your child. For example, you could take 10 weeks and your spouse could take two weeks. These leaves can also be taken simultaneously. The time you take for your own conditions does not count against your spouse's time. Spouses who work for different employers are entitled to each take the full FMLA 12 weeks.

Individual states also have their own pregnancy leave acts, similar to the FMLA. This leave can be combined with FMLA leave to take a larger amount of time off. If your employer offers personal or vacation time, you can choose to use this time in addition to the other time off, if you have accrued it and if you give the required amount of notice.You can be required to use paid vacation time concurrently or prior to your unpaid leave time. If your leave overlaps calendar years, you need to make sure your employer does not require you to use vacation or sick time first in the new year before continuing with FMLA or state pregnancy leave time.

Smaller companies and self-employment. If you are employed by a company with fewer than 50 employees, you are not covered by FMLA. If you're in this situation, find out if your company has a policy about pregnancy leaves, and also determine what your state and municipal laws are, since these will determine what kind of disability leave you qualify for. Ask your employer what you can work out. Josephs recommends: "If you work for an employer who isn't covered by FMLA or does not offer a short-term disability or maternity policy, find out if employees are able to use accumulated paid sick or vacation days for pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare. For an unpaid leave, negotiate how much time you think you will need, and check in occasionally with work, apprising [your employer] of your status. You might want to come back earlier or later than you'd originally thought."

If you are self-employed, you don't qualify for state disability payments. You can take out a private-disability insurance policy, however, which will pay you during the time you are certified as disabled by your healthcare provider. Such coverage takes planning, as you must obtain this policy before becoming pregnant.

Many women combine disability, vacation time, sick leave, state leave time, and FMLA.

*taken from "Time out for Baby" by Brette McWhorter Sember, Every Baby magazine, Issue Four.