Can I take time off for antenatal care if I’m pregnant at work?

If you are pregnant and working, the law gives you several important rights. These include paid time off for antenatal care, protection for your health and safety, and protection from unfair treatment because of your pregnancy. This guide explains how they work in Scotland and England.

Your main rights when you are pregnant at work

If you are pregnant and an employee, you are entitled to:

• paid time off for antenatal care
• up to 52 weeks of maternity leave, and statutory maternity pay or Maternity Allowance if you qualify
• a workplace risk assessment and protection for your health and safety
• protection from unfavourable treatment and dismissal because of your pregnancy or maternity leave

Telling your employer you are pregnant

You must tell your employer that you are pregnant by the end of the 15th week before the week your baby is due. If you did not know you were pregnant by then, tell them as soon as you reasonably can. You should also tell them your expected week of childbirth and when you want your maternity leave and pay to start.

Telling your employer early has advantages. It allows them to plan for your leave and, importantly, to carry out a risk assessment. Your rights to paid antenatal time off and to health and safety protection only apply once your employer knows you are pregnant.

Time off for antenatal care

All pregnant employees have the right to reasonable paid time off for antenatal care from their first day in the job. Agency workers have the same right once they have worked in the same role for 12 weeks.

Your employer must pay you at your normal rate for the time you are off. It is unlawful for an employer to refuse reasonable time off for antenatal care, or to refuse to pay you for it.

For any appointment after the first, your employer can ask to see a certificate confirming your pregnancy and an appointment card or other evidence of the appointment.

Antenatal care is not limited to medical check-ups. If your doctor, midwife or registered health visitor recommends them, it can also include parenting classes and relaxation classes. Where you can reasonably arrange appointments outside working hours, it is sensible to do so, but you cannot be required to rearrange medical appointments that can only take place during work time.

Time off for partners

The baby’s father, or the pregnant woman’s spouse, civil partner or partner in an enduring relationship, has the right to unpaid time off to go with her to up to two antenatal appointments. Each period of time off can be up to six and a half hours.

For employees, this is a day-one right. The right also applies to intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement who expect to apply for a parental order. We explain this in more detail in our article on partners attending antenatal appointments.

Since 6 April 2026, paternity leave has also been a day-one right, following the Employment Rights Act 2025.

IVF treatment

It can be unlawful sex discrimination for an employer to treat a woman less favourably because she is having IVF treatment. Once the fertilised embryo has been transferred, she is treated as pregnant, and the protection from pregnancy discrimination and the right to paid antenatal time off apply from that point.

Health and safety during pregnancy

Some workplace risks can affect a pregnancy very early on, so employers should not wait until someone tells them she is pregnant. As part of their general risk assessment, they must consider risks to women of childbearing age.

Once you tell your employer in writing that you are pregnant, they should carry out an individual risk assessment for your role, involve you in it and review it as your pregnancy progresses.

If there is a significant risk, they must adjust your work or hours, offer suitable alternative work on the same pay, or, if neither is possible, suspend you on full pay. Our article on workplace risk assessments for pregnant women explains what these assessments should cover.

If you think you are at risk

If you believe you are at risk and your employer disagrees, speak to your health and safety representative or trade union representative, if you have one, and raise your concerns with your employer in writing. You may also want to speak to your doctor or midwife. If your employer still does not act, you can raise a concern with the Health and Safety Executive.

Pregnancy-related sickness

If you are off work because of a pregnancy-related illness at any time in the four weeks before the week your baby is due, your maternity leave and pay will start automatically, whatever date you had agreed with your employer. Maternity Allowance, for those who do not qualify for statutory maternity pay, is claimed through Jobcentre Plus.

Compulsory maternity leave

Even if you do not take your full maternity leave, you must not work for two weeks after the birth, or four weeks if you work in a factory. This is known as compulsory maternity leave.

Pregnancy and maternity discrimination

It is unlawful for an employer to treat you unfavourably because of your pregnancy, a pregnancy-related illness or because you are taking or have taken maternity leave. Examples include:

• cutting your hours without your agreement
• suddenly giving you poor appraisals
• giving you unsuitable work
• selecting you for redundancy because of your pregnancy
• treating pregnancy-related sickness as a disciplinary issue

Since 6 April 2024, pregnant employees and those returning from maternity leave have also had extra protection in a redundancy situation, including priority for suitable alternative vacancies. Your employer also cannot change your terms and conditions without your agreement.

If you are dismissed because of your pregnancy, this is automatically unfair and there is no qualifying period. Our discrimination solicitors and unfair dismissal solicitors can advise if this has happened to you.

If you are worried about how you are being treated at work during your pregnancy, book a free 30-minute consultation with our employment solicitors or call 0141 471 9166.