News and events

We have confirmed funding for a two year roll-out of our training course for midwives,'Improving maternity care for refugees and asylum seekers'. Register to attend one of the study days or ask your maternity service to host a course.

Maternity Action now has a telephone advice line on employment rights and benefits. Phone 0845 600 8533.

Maternity Action wrote to the Prime Minister and other government ministers, to express profound concern at reports that the Government will remove the obligation on employers of fewer than 10 staff to comply with current maternity and paternity leave arrangements. This letter has been signed by 25 other organisations.

The European Council rejected the EU Pregnant Workers Directive which had passed the European Parliament and the Committee process. The Directive will now return to the European Commission for further consideration. The Directive included a minumum of 20 weeks of maternity leave on full pay, improved health and safety protection and a raft of other protections for pregnant women and new mothers at work. We campaigned for support for this and are disappointed at the active opposition from the UK Government.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommends Maternity Action's information sheets. See our information sheet on entitlement to free NHS maternity care and on the maternity rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and other migrants.

Maternity Action has produced a briefing on the substantial cuts to maternity benefits and financial support for families announced in the Emergency Budget. We have updated our benefits information to reflect the changes.

The Guardian recommends our website as providing 'lots of useful information'.

Maternity Action has raised unsatisfactory health and safety protection for pregnant women at work with the Lord Young review of health and safety legislation.

Maternity Action has argued that vulnerable migrant women should not be charged for NHS maternity care in a response to the Department of Health consultation on entitlement to NHS care for foreign nationals.

Our information sheets are now linked so you can navigate between them to find the information you need.

You can now find us on facebook!

Maternity Action has released information sheets in Polish on rights at work for mothers, fathers and partners, and the new right to breastfeed in public places.

Maternity Action has released a briefing paper on the low level of awareness about the right to Maternity Allowance amongst migrant women. We have written to Government asking for action.

Maternity Action welcomes the introduction of Additional Paternity Leave but asks why there is no effective legal protection for mothers who continue breastfeeding when they return to work. See our media release.

See our new information sheet on entitlement to maternity care for women from abroad.

Maternity Action supports the Women's Asylum Charter and its new campaign, 'Every Single Woman'. The campaign challenges destitution policies for pregnant refused asylum seekers and other problems with the asylum process.

See the toolkit for small businesses on managing pregnant women and new parents, now available on the Equality and Human Rights Commission website. Prepared by Maternity Action, the toolkit provides checklists, model policies and detailed advice for employers

See our new information sheet on 'Continuing breastfeeding on your return to work'.

In 2005, the Government gave a commitment to extend maternity and adoption pay to 52 weeks by April 2010. In September 2009, they decided not to proceed with this. Maternity Action and NCT wrote to the Prime Minister to express our concern.

Each year 30 000 women lose their jobs as a result of unlawful pregnancy discrimination and the recession is making things worse. We have joined with other organisations to launch a campaign to prevent pregnancy discrimination at work during the recession. Sign up!

We campaigned for an amendment to the Equality Bill to maintain the current level of protection against pregnancy discrimination. We are delighted that the Government has amended the legislation. See our briefing for details.

The Government has given commitments to extend statutory maternity pay from 39 to 52 weeks and to introduce transferable maternity leave, to commence in April 2010. There are reports that the Government is backtracking on this. Maternity Action will be running a campaign to get Government to honour its commitment.

In March 2009, a Court of Appeal judgment changed the entitlement to NHS secondary care for refused asylum seekers. See our information sheet 'Recent court case on refused asylum seekers' for more details on the implications for maternity care.

As of April 2009, the right to request flexible working has been extended to all parents of children under 17. See our information sheet 'Child-friendly working hours' for more details.

Maternity Action and Medact have released a series of information sheets on maternity rights for women from abroad. These cover employment rights, benefits and healthcare and are for asylum seekers, refugees, refused (failed) asylum seekers, EU nationals, women with no recourse to public funds, women with indefinite leave to remain and undocumented migrants.

A tribunal case has given refused asylum seekers access to Section 4 support earlier in their pregnancy. See Asylum Support Appeals Project for more information.

See our information sheet on redundancy during pregnancy and maternity leave.