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From what I know, unless there's some extenuating health concern, you will get the 6 or 8 weeks. Once you're cleared for all activities, that includes work.

My experience is its the standard 6/8 weeks depending on delivery.

If you go on bedrest, then STD starts earlier (and would be longer than 6/8 weeks). If you have complications that prevent you from being cleared at 6/8 weeks, then your STD would be longer.

Yup, 6-8 weeks.

Yes, I believe your doctor will also be accommodating to that standard time.

When you call the insurance company ask about pre-natal disability also so you understand coverage for bedrest and the end of pregnancy. In CA, because of our state laws, you can get put on disability four weeks before EDD even if you're having a happy healthy pregnancy. Not sure if that would be covered.

Yes, the “standard” is 6 weeks, post-birth.

You may get 8 weeks with a c-section depending on what your company purchased for an insurance plan. Not all companies pay the extra to have the c-section add-on.

Additional time OK’d by your doctor would be because of some additional medical issue following the birth (or before the birth). Your doctor isn’t going to sign off on say, 12 weeks, without a medical reason why you can’t physically work. Even if they did, an insurance company would never just pay out on a claim like that without getting medical verification that you truly had an additional disability beyond child birth.

25 weeks eligibility isn't for child birth - that's the max amount of time you/anyone can be out on an STD claim before it transitions to an LTD claim. You'll never get certified for anything close to that post-birth, unless you have a really serious complication.

@ksnow: you employer is always the plan administrator (for employer paid plans). You'll likely hear from the insurance company after you go out on claim, in order to collect claim information. This is true whether your employer has fully insured insurance, or self insures (which many larger companies do).

Just a word of caution - my STD plan worked nothing like how I thought it did, or how my HR thought it did. I only got 6 weeks of paid leave, and that was even after having a c-section. In order to get 8 weeks, I would have had to have my doctor provide my medical records supporting that I was still "disabled". I didn't even have my 6 week PP check up until 8 weeks because of a snowstorm :-/.

So anyways, call your insurance company directly and ask them what their policies are.

@ksnow: Yeah, your HR person really should be able to get you a copy of either the plan documents, or the policy. You’ll want to know what % of pay you’ll receive while out on STD as well. Some companies “top up” STD payments (mine did, so I received 100% pay for 6 weeks), others don’t. You’ll want to know that ahead of time, so you have plenty of time to save or make plans for that period with loss of income if you need to!

@ksnow: I would also make sure that the 2 weeks of parental leave don't run concurrent with your disability. Because your disability starts the day that you go into labor (or when your doctor writes you out). So if that's the day you give birth, you want to be sure that the 2 weeks parental leave don't run at the same time, leaving you with really just 6 weeks of paid leave. Does that make sense?

@ksnow: Ah perfect - if you can swing being unpaid for the last 6 weeks of FMLA, you'll be able to tack it onto the end of those 12 weeks to get you to 14, and then any PTO added on top of that if you're looking to extend for longer!