Antenatal rights for dads

Becoming a dad is one of the most exciting – yet nerve-wracking – times in your life. Not only do you need to prepare yourself mentally for a major life change, but there is a lot of new knowledge that you need to gain – fast.

Just one of the areas you need to get a handle on are your rights as an employee – both for you as a dad, and for your partner, to make sure that you’re both treated as you should be at work.

This article explains what you need to know about antenatal appointments – for dads and for mums.

Antenatal appointments

Mums-to-be are entitled to paid time off for antenatal care, including travel time.

Fathers and partners of pregnant women are entitled to unpaid time off to attend two ante-natal appointments.  Note that time off is capped at six and a half hours for each appointment. These could be medical visits or parenting classes.

If you’re adopting, you can have time off for adoption appointments; surrogacy parents are also allowed unpaid time off for two antenatal visits.

Except for the first appointment, you may be asked by your employer for evidence of the appointment.

For details about other parental rights, visit our other articles in this section.

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