How are the maternity protection periods calculated?
Pre-birth period, post-birth period and the often-overlooked premature-birth special case
The Maternity Protection Act (MuSchG) protects female employees from employment before and after birth. § 3 MuSchG distinguishes two periods: the protection period before childbirth (pre-birth period) of 6 weeks before the expected date of birth and the protection period after childbirth (post-birth period) of generally 8 weeks.
The post-birth period is extended to 12 weeks for multiple births, for premature births and also if a disability is medically diagnosed in the child within 8 weeks of birth — in the latter case only if the woman expressly applies for the extension.
An often-overlooked special case concerns premature birth: if the child is born before the expected date, the pre-birth period is shortened accordingly. Under § 3 (2) sentence 3 MuSchG, exactly these "lost" days are credited to the post-birth period — the total duration of maternity protection therefore remains unchanged, no matter how early the birth takes place.
The day of childbirth itself counts towards neither the pre-birth nor the post-birth period: under German civil-law rules on event-based time limits (§§ 187 (1), 188 (2) BGB) the post-birth period starts on the day after childbirth and ends 8 or 12 weeks after the day of childbirth. In the case of a later birth (after the expected date), however, the pre-birth period automatically extends until the actual date of birth, without the post-birth period being shortened.