maternity leave

American  

noun

• maternity leaves
  plural

1. a leave of absence for an expectant or new mother for the birth and care of the baby.

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maternity leave British  

noun

1. a period of paid absence from work, in Britain currently six months, to which a woman is legally entitled during the months immediately before and after childbirth

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• maternity leaves
  plural

Etymology

Origin of maternity leave

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

maternity leave

The person actually leaving, of course, is White House “pep secretary” Karoline Leavitt, who returned from paid maternity leave about a month ago and has only briefed the press corps twice since returning.

From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026

During Leavitt's roughly seven-week maternity leave earlier this year, a series of senior Trump administration figures took the podium including Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of the Interior Doug Bergum.

From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026

The online retailer started as a family-run business in 2004, when Tatyana Kim, a former English teacher from the suburbs of Moscow, started a business reselling clothing from German mail-order catalogs while on maternity leave.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026

Born in Soviet Chechnya to an ethnic Korean family, Kim founded the company in 2004, reportedly out of her Moscow apartment while on maternity leave with one of her seven children.

From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026

It was a good workplace, allowing her to take six weeks of maternity leave after Lexie’s birth, then Trip’s, then Moody’s.

From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng