The earliest that you can start your maternity leave is 11 weeks before your expected week of childbirth, which is when you are about 29 weeks pregnant. To ensure that you get all your rights, you should use the due date given on the MAT B1 pregnancy certificate that your midwife or GP will give you.Click to see full answer. Also know, how long is maternity leave?All employed pregnant women are entitled to 52 weeks (1 year) of maternity leave, no matter how long they’ve worked for their employer. This is made up of 26 weeks of ordinary maternity leave and 26 weeks of additional maternity leave.Subsequently, question is, when should I take off work for pregnancy? Qualifying for the FMLA You’ve worked with your employer for at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months before the start of your FMLA leave (in other words, at least 24 hours in each of the 52 weeks of the year, or 40 hours per week for at least seven of the last 12 months) Subsequently, one may also ask, how soon before due date should I stop working? If you only have six weeks off, leaving work before or at your due date will run down the clock at a time when you might not yet have your baby. If you go two weeks overdue, that leaves you only four weeks with your baby.Do you get full pay on maternity leave?That’s a total of 52 weeks. You are entitled to up to 39 weeks of statutory maternity pay. The first six weeks of this is paid at 90% of your salary, after which you get £128.73 per week. Note that any employer’s scheme must pay at least as much as statutory maternity pay.