Maternity Leave Application: How To Apply For It?

Maternity means the period of motherhood. Maternity leave is an application submitted to the superior by a mother to take some time off to take care of her newborn child. A lot of women do not appreciate leaves and work from home and take care of their kids as well. A lot of women raise questions like ‘will I lose my job, how will I take care of my child, will I earn the same amount.’ 

This leave does not affect the salary of the women. Maternity leave can be started from midway of pregnancy till the time of bonding. Also read, Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 for further knowledge and information. 

Women can do work from home jobs during pregnancy. Several commercial sectors do not respect this period and refuse to pay during the leave which affects the burden of a single mother. Recently, this period of absence has been extended from 12 weeks to 26 weeks under the Family and Medical Leave Act by the Supreme Court of India.

What is a maternity leave application?

Maternity leave applications are written to the supervisor so that they grant leave to the employee officially. So to apply for maternity leave, a mother needs to submit a maternity leave application to her superior. 

In this blog, we are going to tell you how to write a maternity leave application, so without further adieu let us go through it. If this application is typed on a laptop or computer, then make sure to use the correct size of fonts. The sub-heads must be bold so that the receiver understands the highlighted point.

The keywords for the maternity leave application are as follows:

1. Proper and readable fonts
2. Mention specific date and time
3. Include both sender and receivers address
4. Use professional salutation
5. Motive of writing
6. Mention your issue
7. Propose work from home
8. Mention your availability on phone
9. Propose a possible solution
10. Conclude with gratitude
11. Attach medical documents
12. Put your signature in the end

Application of maternity leave format

An official and professional email is typed and it is advisable for you to type this application and send the print out. Since this is an official letter you have to put your name and address first and then the receiver’s name and address. In between, you will have to input the date. It is important to mention addresses of both parties. If you don’t mention the receiver’s address, it would not be accepted and if you don’t mention your address then the application cannot be reverted back. 

Sender’s name (Your name)

Address (your address)

Contact number (your number)

Date: DD.MM.YYYY (exact date of you sending the letter/receiving date)

To,

Receiver’s name (your superior’s name)

Address (receiver’s address)

Contact number (receiver’s contact number)

Then, comes the subject line which will be written as follow:

SUBJECT: Application for maternity leave

After all this information, we shall initiate with the body of the letter. Firstly, we will start with the salutation. The salutation is advisable to be in a professional tone starting with ‘Respected.’ 

Respected ma’am/sir,

(If you want to mention their name directly then add a ‘dear’ before)

Now, comes the content of the letter. It is going to be a short letter because it has just one motive so we shall only include two paragraphs. You can add a paragraph of your own if you feel like including extra information. Also, read how to deal with late payments.

1st paragraph: This paragraph will consist of the sender’s basic details at the company. Afterward, you shall mention why you are writing this application. You will mention your due date which is the expected time of your delivery. Mention the continuous date from and till which you intend to take leave. 

You must mention if you can work from home after you are physically healthy and what would be your mode of communication.

In this paragraph, you can propose a possible solution to cover the work before taking leave. This would create a good hardworking impression on your supervisor.

Example: “I am Donna, one of the senior associates of your reputed legal firm, A B C . I am writing this letter to let you know about my pregnancy and maternity leave. My due date is 18th October 2021. So, I hope you will allow me to apply for a leave of 3 months and after the first two months, I can start working from home if you permit otherwise I will join the office.”

2nd paragraph: This paragraph would just bring to a conclusion. So, conclude with your gratitude in a soft tone for him/her to accept this application. Also mention in this paragraph that you will be available for any information over the phone.

Example: “I hope you will give permission to my request and talk to the Human Resources regarding the necessary documents and paperwork for my leave period. I will let you know about any issues caused by my maternity leave period. And, I will be available for phone calls if anybody needs me regarding any information.”

Now, you can end the letter by the following,

Thanking you, (ending salutation)

Your’s sincerely

Sender’s name (your name)

Conclusion

It would be very convenient for your superior if you can attach your basic medical documents along with this application. In a lot of cases, motherhood takes a longer time than usual. In cases of miscarriages, maternity leave is mandatory for both the physical and mental health of the woman. In cases of more than one surviving child, an extension of maternity leave is needed.

 So in cases of miscarriage, twins/triplets, and more abnormal cases, an extension of maternity leave is asked to be sent to the supervisor. The application for extension of maternity leave is written in the same way but the subject and the content would be slightly different. The subject would be “application for extension of maternity leave.” 

The content would say that due to a medical emergency of having more than one child, you would require a while to get back to work. You can start working from home in that due course as well. Mention in the application if they allow you to work from home.