Family Law - Maternity and Paternity Leave

If you are working and you fall pregnant, the law protects you with some basic rights, these are that you should not be fired from your job just because you are pregnant, your job should be safe for when you want to return to work, you have the right to maternity pay and to have time off for ante natal care. If your employer fails to comply with these laws, you have the right to take legal action against them.

If you are fired from your job for being pregnant or having a baby, it is an unfair dismissal. You may experience other types of discrimination which are used to try and force you to leave your job, this includes changing your hours without consulting your first, being given work which is unsuitable for you, being unfairly judged in staff reports and not being allowed time off for ante natal appointments.

It is a mother's legal right to have time off for maternity leave. There is a basic statutory amount which is set by the government and some employers have their own company schemes which can differ and be more generous than the statutory amount.

Statutory maternity leave is set at 52 weeks. 26 weeks of this is Ordinary Maternity Leave and the other 26 is Additional Maternity leave. 39 weeks of maternity leave should be paid. Throughout this time the mother's job should be kept open and her contract of employment should continue despite the fact that she is not there. If you are pregnant, you need to inform your employer before the 15th week before the baby is due that you are pregnant and plan to take maternity leave. You should also inform your employer of the date in which you would like your maternity leave to start. Provided that you follow this procedure, you will be entitled to maternity leave regardless of how long you have worked for your employer or the amount of hours that you work.

If you fit certain specifications, for example you have worked for your employer for at least 26 weeks before getting pregnant; you may be entitled to statutory maternity pay. Statutory maternity pay is set at 90% of your normal pay and is payable for six weeks. After this time it will be reduced to 瞿124.80 for the remainder of the maternity period up until 33 weeks. If you don't qualify for statutory maternity pay, you may be entitled to state maternity allowance.

Expecting fathers are also entitled to some paternity benefits. A father is entitled to two weeks statutory paternity leave providing that they inform their employer before the 15th week before their child is due.

Fathers will also be entitled to statutory paternity pay for the duration of their leave, this is set at 90% of their weekly earnings or 瞿124.80, whichever amount is lower. Fathers are not legally entitled to any time off for ante natal care, however individual employers may make exceptions for this.

Does Eating Dairy Foods While Pregnant Make You Have A Girl Baby?

I recently had someone who was trying to have a girl baby contact me. She was already pregnant but wanted to do everything that she could to make sure that she ended up with a girl rather than a boy. She asked me: "should I be drinking milk? Does drinking dairy when you're pregnant help you get a girl baby?"

There was really two questions here. The first was whether consuming milk or dairy helped you to conceive or become pregnant with a female child. The second was whether your diet after you're already pregnant can affect your baby's gender. I will discuss these topics in the following article.

Does Your Diet After Conception Affect Your Baby's Gender?: I'll address this question first. Your baby's gender is decided at conception. Although the sex organs aren't visible for a while, once you conceive, your baby's sex has already been decided. At the end of the day, if an X sperm fertilizes your egg, you've conceived a girl even if this isn't immediately visible. And, if a Y fertilizes your egg, you're the parents of a baby boy on down the road, even if the male organs aren't apparent for some time.

So, your diet after conception isn't going to change what has already taken place. That's not to say that a healthy diet (which includes dairy) isn't important for a healthy baby and a healthy pregnancy. They are. They just don't factor into your baby's gender if they happen after conception instead of before it, which leads me to my next point.

Eating Acidic Foods Before Pregnancy Can Increase Your Chances Of Having A Girl: Your diet before you become pregnant can affect your baby's gender. The reason for this is that the foods you eat can affect whether your reproductive tract is alkaline or acidic. If it is acidic, this increases your chances for a girl because this is detrimental to boy sperm. If you are alkaline, this is much better for the boy sperm which in turn increases your chances for a boy.

Along these same lines, milk and dairy foods are more acidic. So consuming them can help you to become more acidic which would increase your odds of a daughter. However, just adding one food to your diet may not be enough to change your PH and acidity. Women will often do a short overhaul of their diets when they're trying to conceive and influence their baby's gender.

You can test yourself before you make any changes to your diet to see where you're falling to determine what types of dietary changes you might want to make. Also, douching can help to change your PH also, so you have some other options other than just diet.

Relieving Pregnancy Stress - Ergonomic Products at the Office and at Home

Any woman who's been pregnant can attest that it is a highly uncomfortable state to be in, especially once the third trimester comes around. The growing belly places increasing stress on the spinal cord, getting to sleep can actually become a nightmare, your bowels go haywire, and ankles and feet swell to tree trunk proportions. Of course, some women out there (those lucky blessed few) sail through their pregnancy without a hitch. The rest of us, however, have to find other solutions in order to manage our discomfort.

Ergonomics may not help reduce symptoms like morning sickness and heartburn, nor can it help you stop craving pickles with chocolate, but it can help solve issues like sleeping comfortably, swollen ankles and feet, and spinal pain, so common during the third trimester. Once you sleep well and are in less pain during the working day, everything seems more bearable, even your baby playing a particularly vicious game of rugby in your belly.

Perhaps the most important thing to concentrate on at first is sleeping well. That lump isn't very comfortable by the third trimester. It is impossible to sleep on your belly, when you sleep on your side, your belly falls forward and sinks into the mattress (painful!), and you are left with one option: sleeping on your back. Less than 15% of people are able to fall asleep while lying on their back. Breathing passages are more likely to get clogged, causing snoring, which often wakes you up right after you fall asleep. Most people fall asleep on one side or the other.

The solution to this is a pregnancy pillow. Whether you need a full-body sleeping bean bag or a simple bed wedge, pregnancy pillows come in many shapes and sizes to suit your needs. Their purpose is to provide support for your belly and back during sleep, which eliminates most of the back pain involved from sleeping in a bad position. Cradle pillows are designed to support the neck, and pregnancy cradle pillows are designed to be placed under the belly while lying on your side for support. Full length body pillows support the neck, belly, and hips while lying on your side, placing your body in the best angle to sleep in. Placing a lumbar back support pillow under the small of your back when sleeping will provide the best support for your lower spine while sleeping on your back, which relieves the stress of all that extra belly weight carried during the day.

Legs, ankles, and feet are very susceptible to swelling during the third trimester of your pregnancy. Women who spend hours standing up while pregnant are twice as likely to have swollen ankles as women who sit down most of the day. During pregnancy, tired feet and ankles can be extremely stressful on the body. It can feel like a thousand throbbing drums are beating in your legs, and all you can do is dream about your couch or bed and lifting your legs for a very long time by the end of a long day.

To avoid tired feet and legs, use an anti fatigue mat at home and in the office. anti fatigue mats filled with special gel provide excellent support for your legs and feet, and are especially effective when you stand for a long period of time. Anti fatigue mats should relieve pressure on the lower body. This relief extends to the shoulders and neck, making the day much more bearable. Anti fatigue mats come in all shapes and forms, from mats that are dual purpose and remove dirt at entrances, to mats specifically designed for the hotel business, and mats designed to be placed under computer chairs, providing extra support for feet. Wherever you work during your pregnancy, it's possible to find the right anti fatigue mat to meet your needs.

It is important to sit in a good ergonomic chair that is specifically adjusted to your requirements and size if you work in front of a computer all day. Doing this should relieve a lot of the pressure in your spine and back. A good ergonomic keyboard and mouse will relieve the tension in the neck and shoulders, not to mention the dreaded carpal tunnel syndrome (as if you really need that on top of everything?). Make sure your monitor is adjusted properly, and that your desk is at the correct height. It is difficult enough to type while very pregnant without your desk being too low or too high.

It is possible to work through your pregnancy in relative comfort. If you sleep well, if your body is supported properly throughout the day, and if pressure is relieved from your feet and legs, you may be able to sail through your pregnancy just like those few lucky women out there who are always glowing with good health.

Disability Insurance - How it Works

If you work in a sedentary occupation and are young and healthy, insurance and especially disability insurance is probably not at the top of your list of things to investigate. Would you be able to pay your bills should you be out of work for 90 days? Most people look at the odds of something happening to them and discount themselves as part of the statistics but at least 30% of people 35-65 suffer a disability lasting 90 days. It could be broken bones from any number of accidents or a problem pregnancy or any of many possibilities.

Disability Insurance was created with the intention of replacing approximately 45-60% of your gross income tax free should you become sick or ill enough that it prevents you from working and earning a living in your occupation. Most Disability insurance is geared toward white collar occupations. Blue/Gray collar disability insurance is available through some insurance carriers. If you are a fireman, policeman or a roofer or any the other occupations considered blue collar you will need to do more research for basic information beyond this site.

Different insurance companies offer disability insurance policies but they are not the same. Do not assume they are and go for the lowest cost. Do not buy the cheapest disability insurance policy you find. Doing this would lower your odds of getting paid a monthly benefit and the benefits could be significantly lower than what you would receive from a better contract. If you are in the initial stages of investigation of such policies know that they are not easy to shop and just compare prices, you need to compare the following to truly get what you need.

Disability insurance policies have a definition of total disability written in the policy. You should understand this before you buy. There are three basic types of policies.

* Own Occupation - "Unable to perform duties of your regular occupation." If you are not severely disabled and you can do work in some other occupation you will still be considered totally disabled in your own occupation but you will not be penalized while on claim for working in another occupation.

* Modified own occupation (Income Replacement Insurance) - This is the most common definition in the industry today. "Unable to perform duties of your regular occupation, and are NOT engaged in any other occupation." In other words if you go back to work in some other capacity you will be penalized during a claim. The insurance company MAY offset your monthly benefit check.

* Gainful Occupation - This is the common definition for a policy written for an employer sponsored group.

"Unable to perform duties of your regular occupation, or any occupation for which you are deemed qualified." This definition leaves the determination of your disability up to the insurance company. It is not clear what would happen should you become disabled. Avoid this type of policy if you are buying disability insurance on your own. If you receive it through your employer look into supplementing it with a better policy.

Renewability is another aspect that you should understand when buying a disability policy. Review the following three types available.

* Non-Cancellable and Guaranteed Renewable - Guarantees that after purchasing this policy they will not change your premium schedule, your monthly benefits or your policy benefits to age 65 or whatever age you agreed to. Even if your income goes down later in life and you become totally disabled the insurance company will pay you the total disability benefit you originally placed in force. Even if you changed jobs from a white collar to a more risky occupation later on. As long as you kept your policy in force they can not change anything. This is the best and really only way to go. Make sure the exact words "Non-Cancellable and Guaranteed Renewable" are written into the policy.

* Guaranteed Renewable - This guarantees that they will probably not change anything about the policy, but they can. They can change the policy year, occupation class and the premium with approval from the state. Be very careful of this type of policy.

* Conditionally Renewable - You get no guarantees with this type of policy. Different companies may offer you different conditions for you to renew each year and these conditions may be very hard to meet. Avoid this completely.

Many disability claims involve a residual claim. This means a person can still perform the duties of their occupation but they have a loss of income of at least 20% or they have suffered what is called a loss of time and duties. On a loss of time and duties claim they normally stop paying a residual claim once you are back at work full time. But, your income may not be back to what it was before you were disabled. A residual provision based on loss of income would appear to protect you for an unlimited amount of recovery time. The loss of time and duties portion of a policy may have a recovery benefit portion but may only pay out for a limited time. A person may be residually disabled longer than totally disabled.

Presumptive disability protects against drastic disabilities that occur. Presumptive disability varies. This covers for loss of sight, hearing, speech, and limbs. This coverage is built into most contracts but not all. The wording maybe different and they use words like, Total, Irrecoverable and Permanent. An irrecoverable loss or disability is permanent and that is what they will pay on. Total loss means if you have a total loss and it is permanent it covers you. Total loss also covers broken bones and temporary loses of sight, hearing, and speech etc. Make sure you understand their meaning.

Recurrent disability is where you recover from one disability and then another one pops up. There is what the insurance industry calls an "elimination period". The time you wait between the onset of a disability and when you are eligible to collect benefits. Most policies are for 90 days. Recurrent disabilities should have no elimination period. Look for a policy that has at least a 12 month recurrent clause in case some new problem shows up. Make sure your elimination period can be satisfied with either a total disability or a residual. Policies that have an elimination period just for total disability or with just consecutive days of disability are not good.

Be sure to find out how long disability benefits will be paid. This benefit period is from the time you are eligible to collect benefits while on a claim and when you go back to work or if you are permanently disabled it would pay the claim until the "To Age 65" or whatever the age or time frame stated on your insurance policy. To age 65 is the most popular and most disabilities last a little over 3 years.

There are optional riders you can add to a base policy for additional protection. They may include a Cost of Living Adjustment, Automatic increase rider and other options. There are also exclusions that your insurance agent should discuss with you.

For more information and tips please visit www.WatchYourWealth.com

Do Body Wraps Work?

Have you ever wondered if it is actually possible to lose inches, reduce cellulite or detoxify your body after only a couple wrapping sessions?

People want to know the answer to the question: Do body wraps really work? Can they help me lose weight?

Before I answer that question, let me tell you a little more about body wraps.

A body wrap is a non-surgical treatment that involves covering the body with a clay based formula and applying wrapping towels to the skin. The wraps are usually left on for 45 minutes, after which they are removed and the clay based formula is washed off.

Body wraps are common at the spa, but home body wraps are becoming more and more common because of the ease of the treatment and the amount of money that can be saved.

Are body wraps an effective treatment for weight loss?

Body wrapping does work very well if you want to achieve:

• 
  Body inch loss - immediate inch loss is usually to be expected, even after your first body wrap treatment.


• 
  Body detox - they also absorb harmful toxins that have built up in your body.


• 
  Improved skin - they help to achieve this by deeply moisturize the skin and removing dead skin cells.

Even though body wraps on their own do work well enough, don't forget that they work better like most health care treatments, when used in combination with either a healthy diet or a weight loss exercise program. Simply stated, if you are not eating properly and live a fairly sedentary lifestyle, you will not get the maximum result out of each body wrap session.

So how does a body wrap work?

The ingredients in your body wrap formula go to work right away once you have applied the material. Not only does this moisturize the skin and remove dead skin cells, body wraps help to detoxify your system by increasing the lymphatic and fatty acid drainage from your cells into your venous system. It is the removal of these toxins that lead to real, permanent weight loss over a period of time.

How will I feel after I get a body wrap?

After a wrapping treatment, you will feel like a new person. Your skin will feel much more toned and you will notice an improvement in its appearance. If you had cellulite before receiving your wrap, it may not be visible anymore. Inch loss all through your body will be instant.

Do you want to lose inches fast, tighten up your skin, and detoxify your body from home?

Then this is the only site you will ever need to visit: "Wrap Yourself Slim, Body Wraps Exposed"

Prenatal and Pregnancy Belly Button Rings

Diamonds are a girl's best friend, right? Every girl loves a little bling; especially now-a-days since women are getting some type of piercing done every day. One of the most popular piercings is the belly button ring. There are many women getting bling on their naval and it attracts the eye of many people so it is becoming a trend around the world.

Not only are the rates of belly button piercings going up but the rates of birth are as well. People are having more and more children each day. So where do pregnancy and naval rings connect? The fact that pregnant women are either getting their belly buttons pierced or they already are pierced. Could this be dangerous for mothers? Or worse, could it be harmful to their babies?

Many women who have their belly button pierced fear becoming pregnant someday. They wonder whether their fetus will be in any harm at all or if their own bodies will be in danger. Although people are scared of the dangers, it is normal to have a belly button piercing throughout a whole pregnancy. However, there are a few misconceptions of being a pregnant woman with a naval piercing.

Many women who wear belly button rings assume that when they become pregnant, they will have to remove their piercing when their belly starts to expand. Doctors say, though, that there are no valid medical reasons for a pregnant woman to remove her piercing. If a woman starts to feel uncomfortable later in the pregnancy they should know that it is okay to remove the jewelry as long as safety regulations are followed.

Research at the March of Dimes has found that if women get their belly button pierced while pregnant, it might not heal properly due to the constant change of shape in the belly. Another safety precaution to be aware of is the cleanliness of the needle being used. For example, if the needle is not sterile it could pass an infection into your body like HIV or Hepatitis B and it could be passed on to the fetus as well. If pregnant women do decide to get belly button rings, they are advised to double check with the person doing the belly button piercing that all tools being used are sterile and make sure that they are aware that the woman is pregnant.

There are a few risks of maternity piercings. The major one is infection. If the piercing is not taken care of the way it should be or if it is brand new, the risk of infection is much higher. Signs of infection include puss oozing from the piercing, skin being of a higher temperature around the piercing, swelling or redness. If you think you have an infection, call your doctor right away; don't wait until it's too late!

If discomfort becomes a problem during the pregnancy, maternity belly button rings are an option. These are made of a medical-grade plastic material. The plastics are flexible so they are great for women who have rapidly growing stomachs during their journey through pregnancy. If both the plastic and medal piercings are uncomfortable, remove the jewelry and wait until after the baby is born.

The most important thing about maternity belly button rings is yours and the baby's safety. That is always your number one priority, now that you are carrying a child and entering motherhood. If you don't feel right about getting a piercing done while pregnant or if you have some concerns, contact your doctor immediately. If you feel like you should know more, you have the right to. Ask your doctor anything and make sure that she will give you the straight facts and not her opinion. You want to know that your child will be in safety when entering the world of today's society. Find all the information today and don't be afraid to ask your doctor anything.

Effective Ways to Relieve Sciatica Pain While Pregnant

Sciatica during pregnancy is a common complaint. Sciatica is described as sharp pain that runs along the large sciatic nerve from the back down the legs. Sciatica during pregnancy is an unpleasant, but treatable form of back pain.

Here's how to find relief.

Back pain is a common complaint during pregnancy. And it's quite expected since you're continuously gaining weight. You're also walking in a new and different way. On top of that, your hormones are relaxing the muscles and ligaments are loosening throughout your body. But you don't have to live with it for the duration of your pregnancy. Often, you can treat - or prevent - back pain during pregnancy with simple self-care strategies or complementary therapies.

Focus on good posture.

Your center of gravity shifts forward as your baby grows. Often, your body will attempt to compensate in some way to avoid falling forward, which can strain the muscles in your lower back -and this is what leads to back pain.. Tuck your buttocks under, pull your shoulders back and downward, and stand as straight and tall as you can.

Sit properly...and stand as little as possible.

If possible, sit with your feet elevated. Choose a chair with lumbar support. Your lower back should be supported with a small pillow. Change position often, and try not to stand for extended periods of time.

Stay active.

Low intensity exercise on a regular basis can keep your back strong and may actually prevent and/or relieve back pain. Try brisk walking, swimming or riding a stationary bike. Just make sure your doctor or health care provider is aware of, and approves of these activities

Try alternating heat and cold.

Applying heat to your back is helpful for treating tight muscles. Try soaking in a warm bathtub or apply a heating pad. Some pregnant women find relief by alternating ice packs with heat. Applying ice or a cold wrap is effective for inflammation.

Sleep on your side.

Sleep on your side, not your back. Make an investment in a full-body pillow. Place the pillow between your legs while sleeping, and if possible try keeping your knees bent while sleeping.

Consider complementary treatments.

When treating sciatica during pregnancy, the effectiveness of chiropractic care or acupuncture may not be clear. Some women find comfort and relief, while others may not. These methods done correctly are likely safe during pregnancy - as long as you're receiving proper prenatal care. Before attempting these methods its vital that you discuss your back pain with your health care provider. It's important to insure your back pain isn't caused by a separate underlying condition.

The good news is, there has been a recent breakthrough in the development of an extremely gentle yet effective technique of treating sciatica during pregnancy. Many pregnant women have received amazing and instant relief by learning and applying this gentle method. This gentle method utilizes "sciatic moves" as well as moves on the lower back to effectively relieve labor pain brought on by sciatica. So...if you find the tips above ineffective or not quite enough to relieve your pain, then learning this breakthrough method may be perfect for you. This amazing technique was developed by a doctor and is now available in a step-by-step guide.