How do I request maternity leave as an employee?
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Detailed explanation, checklist and sources
Notify your employer at least three weeks before your chosen maternity-leave start. Dutch pregnancy and postnatal leave normally total at least sixteen weeks, or twenty for multiples. The employer applies separately for the UWV benefit. The final end date also depends on the birth and any special circumstances.
On this page
- Identify the right employment scheme
- Choose the start using the correct date
- Notify the employer and keep your certificate
- Check the separate benefit application and payment
- Update dates after birth or illness
- Use the official hospital-extension procedure
- Discuss spreading the remaining postnatal leave
- Check contract expiry and obtain targeted help
- Does notifying my employer prove that benefit has been requested?
- Documents to prepare
- Sources
1. Identify the right employment scheme
This concerns a pregnant employee under the Dutch leave scheme, not the partner’s leave. With a fixed-term or on-call contract, check employment status and the end date; that contract type does not by itself exclude the employee route. Self-employed people should use the separate ZEZ guidance. People receiving only a UWV benefit and some personal-budget care workers have different application routes; ask UWV if unsure.
2. Choose the start using the correct date
Count backwards from the day after the expected delivery date. For one baby, choose between six and four weeks before that day; for twins or multiples, between ten and eight weeks. Postnatal leave begins the day after birth, or after the last baby is born in a multiple birth. It lasts at least ten weeks. Count calendar days, including public holidays. Record the chosen start but keep the expected end date provisional.
UWV · Duur en start van verlof ↗
Rijksoverheid · Verlof berekenen en spreiden ↗
Wet arbeid en zorg · Artikelen 3:1 en 3:3 (officiële PUC-publicatie) ↗
3. Notify the employer and keep your certificate
Notify your employer of the chosen start no later than three weeks before leave begins. The employer cannot refuse statutory leave. Use the draft notice and request confirmation. Obtain a pregnancy certificate from your doctor or midwife and keep it yourself: UWV may request it until one year after benefit ends. Do not include medical details in an ordinary leave email. Confirm the expected delivery date with the certificate when needed for your leave request. Keep the original yourself and do not share unnecessary medical information.
Rijksoverheid · Zwangerschapsverlof aanvragen ↗
Wet arbeid en zorg · Artikelen 3:1 en 3:3 (officiële PUC-publicatie) ↗
4. Check the separate benefit application and payment
The employer applies to UWV for WAZO benefit four to two weeks before your leave starts. Explicitly request confirmation: your leave notice is not that application. Benefit equals one hundred per cent of the assessed daily wage, capped at the maximum daily wage; it does not guarantee your entire take-home salary. Check payment through the employer or directly, and any collective-agreement supplement. If the employer cannot or will not apply, contact UWV for the official route.
5. Update dates after birth or illness
Notify your employer of the birth no later than the second day after delivery. Unused pregnancy-leave days normally transfer to postnatal leave, so an early birth does not simply shorten the total. A later birth preserves postnatal leave and may increase the total. Illness in the flexible period before your chosen start can use days that would otherwise transfer. Report illness to the employer. Illness during leave does not itself give extra leave days. Have the end date reassessed after illness or premature birth.
UWV · Duur en start van verlof ↗
UWV · Ziek en zwanger in loondienst ↗
Rijksoverheid · Rechten tijdens verlof ↗
Wet arbeid en zorg · Artikelen 3:1 en 3:3 (officiële PUC-publicatie) ↗
6. Use the official hospital-extension procedure
If your baby is admitted to hospital for medical reasons for more than seven days during postnatal leave, extra leave may follow. The statutory cap is ten additional weeks. The calculation counts admission days from day eight through the final day of the original postnatal leave and offsets postnatal leave already exceeding ten weeks. Ten weeks is therefore not automatic. Tell your employer when admission begins and ends and obtain hospital statements. Have the employer make the official application during the last two weeks of the original leave; if admission continues, on its final day. Ask UWV to confirm your individual calculation.
UWV · Ziekenhuisopname pasgeboren kind ↗
Wet arbeid en zorg · Artikelen 3:1 en 3:3 (officiële PUC-publicatie) ↗
7. Discuss spreading the remaining postnatal leave
After the first six weeks of postnatal leave, you may request to spread the remainder subject to conditions. Request this within three weeks after postnatal leave starts. The period for taking the remainder is thirty weeks starting the day after the leave is divided, not from the birth or application date. The employer must agree within two weeks unless a compelling business or service interest prevents this. If hospital-extension leave applies, the spreading request concerns the period after that extension. Record hours, the division date and final deadline. UWV still pays benefit over a continuous period; spreading leave gives no extra benefit weeks.
Rijksoverheid · Verlof berekenen en spreiden ↗
Wet arbeid en zorg · Artikelen 3:1 en 3:3 (officiële PUC-publicatie) ↗
8. Check contract expiry and obtain targeted help
If a fixed-term contract ends during leave, benefit generally continues until its existing end date. If employment ends before leave, ask UWV to assess the ten-week condition and the appropriate next route. Pregnancy cannot be the reason for non-renewal, but a fixed-term contract is not automatically extended. Holiday entitlement continues to accrue and you need not surrender holiday days for maternity leave. Use our own help request for refusal, disputed calculations or contract issues; never post medical records in public comments.
Draft maternity-leave notice
Complete every bracket and check the chosen start. Send it yourself at least three weeks beforehand. This is employer notification, not a UWV application or medical record.
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Does notifying my employer prove that benefit has been requested?
No. You notify the employer about leave; the employer separately requests WAZO benefit from UWV, normally four to two weeks before the start. Ask for confirmation. If the employer cannot or will not apply, or your contract ends, contact UWV yourself.
Documents to prepare
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- Employment contract, employer and any end date
- Expected delivery date and single or multiple pregnancy
- Chosen start and notice three weeks beforehand
- Pregnancy certificate kept in your own records
- UWV application, daily wage, payment and contractual supplement
- Actual birth, illness, hospital admission and revised dates
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Rijksoverheid · Zwangerschapsverlof aanvragen ↗UWV · Duur en start van verlof ↗UWV · Uitkering aanvragen ↗UWV · Ziek en zwanger in loondienst ↗UWV · Ziekenhuisopname pasgeboren kind ↗UWV · Einde contract tijdens zwangerschapsverlof ↗Rijksoverheid · Verlof berekenen en spreiden ↗Rijksoverheid · Rechten tijdens verlof ↗Wet arbeid en zorg · Artikelen 3:1 en 3:3 (officiële PUC-publicatie) ↗Sources may be in Dutch. General information about Dutch law, not individual legal advice.