Working families helpline

The Working Families helpline team are there to answer your frequently asked maternity questions.

Some common maternity questions are nothing to worry about and some are. The Working Families helpline team is on hand to explain where you stand on all your maternity rights. Below are some typical queries and the answers you will need.

“I haven’t had anything in writing from my employer about maternity leave or pay”.

Don’t worry. Employers are supposed to write to you once you have given notice for maternity leave to let you know when your maternity leave will end, but lots of employers forget. The reason employers are meant to write to you is so you know when your maternity leave ends, so if you come back a day late they can discipline or dismiss you. If they don’t write then you may have protection from dismissal if you do get the return date wrong. Your employers do not have to write to confirm that you will get Statutory Maternity Pay, although it is good practice to do so. They do, however, have to write to you if you are not entitled to SMP.

“My employer isn’t going to cover my job during maternity leave and I’m worried he won’t want me back”.

Your employer doesn’t have to cover your job while you are away and lots of employers choose to save money by dividing the work among colleagues. This shouldn’t affect your right to go back to your job and if you are dismissed because the employer prefers the way the job was done while you were away then this will be an act of discrimination.

“I just started my maternity leave, my employer sent me a P45 but said that he would re-employ me after I’d had the baby”.

This is wrong. You should not be dismissed for a reason to do with maternity leave. You are still an employee when you are on maternity leave, and still get all your rights under the contract except for pay.

If you have any concerns at all about your maternity rights, call the Working Families team on the confidential freephone legal helpline 0800 013 0313.

Working Families is a work-life charity.

Visit www.workingfamilies.org.uk for further information. 

Grandparents give £33 billion of free childcare

Millions of grandparents are taking on the role of 'second mum and dad' to their grandchildren, helping out with everything from childcare to cooking family meals.

New research from Aviva suggests that around half of all UK grandparents now look after their grandchildren and help around the house while mums and dads work. Of these, 99.5% do so without pay. The study shows that on average, each grandparent will care for two children for around thirteen hours a week. This amounts to an estimated saving of more than £33 billion for UK parents each year.

However, these grandparents are feeling the pressure as a result of their kindness:

• 32% feel guilty if they ever say "no" to looking after their grandchildren.

• 30% actually cancel their own plans to mind their young charges.

• 23% feel taken for granted at times.

• One in eight feel financially worse-off as a result of looking after their grandchildren.

• One in twenty say they would like to do more paid work but can't because of childminding duties.

On a more positive note the vast majority of grandparents see clear emotional benefits to helping out their families:

•  88% feel closer to their grandchildren because of the time they spend with them.

• 59% say they are more patient with their grandchildren than they were with their own children.

Many of us would find life far more difficult without our parents to help us out, so buy them a bottle of wine or some flowers today to show your appreciation!

Recognising a stroke

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognise the symptoms of a stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can recognise a stroke by asking three

simple questions:

S Ask the individual to smile.

T Ask the person to talk and speak a simple sentence (coherently).

R Ask him or her to raise both arms.

If he or she has trouble with any one of these tasks, call the emergency services immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

Another sign of a stroke is a crooked tongue. Ask the person to stick

out his tongue... if the tongue is crooked, if it goes to one side

or the other, that can also be an indication of a stroke.

Ten quick reading tips

 1. Read to your child every night, even if it's only a couple of pages. This is probably the most important way you can help your child get into reading. And they love it!

2. Follow the words with your finger or corner of a bookmark as you read. Over time you can deliberately not say a word and wait for your child to say it. Pick easy words at first.

3. Ask your child to read to you at breakfast time. This could be homework reading or their chosen book. Children are fresher in the morning. This can be difficult but if you work five to ten minutes reading into your routine at breakfast your child will benefit.

4. Have a chart to tick each time the reading is completed. Give lots of positive comments and feedback. Smile and be calm. If you are frustrated, image how your child feels. Remember it will get easier. Reward the reading at the end of each week.

5. Variety is the spice of life - find your nearest second-hand book shop or visit car boot sales. Choosing a new book every week (which probably won't set you back more than 30p or so) is a wonderful reward, a great trip out and all part of the reading experience.

6. A personalized bookmark can make the book you are reading very special.

7. Read your own books and magazines while your children read. Children learn by example. Curl up on the sofa with the paper, a magazine or a book and encourage your child to do the same with their book, even if it is just for five or ten minutes.

8. Cut out interesting articles from the newspaper that would be of interest to your child - funny or serious - football, animals, local people or places they know. Read them out loud, pointing to the words. Pursue any discussion that follows - this is a great vocabulary builder.

9. Talk with your child's teacher. If you are concerned that your child is not reading as competently as you would expect, discuss this with their teacher. Agree a way forward with objectives and time frames.

10. Play word games on the go - in the car, restaurants, waiting rooms... I spy; word association (first word you think of when I say 'cat'); make a sentence using each letter in turn of the car registration plate in front.

supplied by www.zoobookoo.com

The heartbeats of a mother and foetus synchronise

This previously unknown connection - discovered by scientists at the University of Aberdeen and Witten/Herdenke University in Germany - has paved the way for a new technique to detect development problems during pregnancy.

The findings show that synchronisation between the heartbeats of a mother and foetus only occurs when the mother breathes rhythmically. If this synchronisation does not occur, it signals that something may be wrong with the development of the foetus.

This opens up the potential for early medical intervention to be taken whilst the child is still in the womb.

Dr Marco Thiel - one of a team of physicists from the University of Aberdeen who worked on the study said: "Pregnant mothers often report an awareness of a bond with their child, but until now there has been no hard evidence to suggest this bond is reflected in the interaction of their heartbeats. Our findings reveal that synchronisation between the heartbeat of a mother and foetus does actually occur - but only when the mother is breathing in a rhythmical fashion. The foetus can sense the rhythmical shift in the mother's heartbeat and adapts its own heartbeat accordingly."