Congé Maternité

What I did on my summer vacation.

Just kidding. Maternity leave is anything but a vacation. It's like deciding to leave your current job for a new one that offers 24 hour shifts seven days a week, few breaks, and a demanding boss who's cute but whose communication style leaves a lot to be desired. And who has no problem with calling you at 2 in the morning.

But at least, in France, it's paid!

Maternity Leave in France: How it Works

France's maternity leave isn't the greatest and it isn't the worst. For your first and second child, you get up to 16 weeks paid time off. Typically, six of those weeks occur before the birth and the remaining 10 are post-natal. However, there's the option of reporting some of your pre-natal weeks until after the birth of your baby.

That was my original intention, since my pregnancy was going well and I have a desk job that isn't physically demanding. I had planned to start my leave three weeks before the birth, just in case my son came a bit before his due date (haha) and take 13 weeks after the birth.

Of course, that's not what ended up happening. Since my baby arrived almost six weeks ahead of schedule, I ended up taking the full 16 weeks post-natal.

Once you have more than two children, you get up to 26 weeks of leave. If you happen to have twins or triplets, you can take between 34 and 46 weeks of leave.

Like many things in France, maternity leave is required. If you have an employer, they can't deny you or fire you for going on leave. You even get paid leave if you're a freelancer/auto entrepreneur, provided you meet the requirements. However, you aren't obligated to take the full 16 weeks. Just eight weeks are mandatory, with six of those weeks happening after the birth.

If your baby is born more than 6 weeks premature, your entire leave is post-natal and you get the additional weeks added on to your 16. You also get an additional leave if your child is premature and hospitalized.

How Does France Compare to Other Countries?

France's maternity leave requirements are much better than those of the US, where you can get up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave thanks to FMLA (provided you work for an employer that qualifies) and are more or less at the mercy of your employer or the state where you live regarding whether that leave is paid.

I, like many people, don't really understand why the US doesn't have mandatory paid leave for all workers. I mean, I understand why but I also don't. But that's a discussion for another time and place.

So, obviously a minimum of 8 weeks of paid leave is much better than no guarantee of paid leave and limited worker protection.

But! Wow, there are some countries where the leave on offer is more than one year. Or where the leave is gender neutral, meaning all parents get the same amount. For example, in Sweden, each parent can take up to 240 days of paid leave. In contrast, France's paternity leave is a max of 25 days.

So I don't know, maybe the French are rubbing off on me, as there's always something to complain about. The grass is always greener somewhere else.

Getting Maternity Leave as an Auto Entrepreneur

If you work for a company, they handle the nuts and bolts of your leave for you. As an auto entrepreneur, it's a much more DIY process.

I had no idea what to do at first, so I asked the sage-femme during the entretien prenatal precoce. And she sent me this 65-page booklet for "femmes cheffes d'entreprise."

It was full of forms to complete in order to claim my leave. Technically, I only needed to complete one form, "Imprimé no.1," "Demande de Congé Maternité," but since I initially wanted to delay the start of my leave, I also needed to fill out "Imprimé no. 7," "Demande de report du congé prénatal," to request that it actually begin three weeks before my due date.

The forms aren't that difficult to complete. I needed to write out my social security number and name and sign the documents, swearing that I wouldn't work during the 16 weeks of leave. My doctor had to complete part of both of them, basically just by signing and stamping them, to show that she approved of the delay and of my taking the leave in the first place.

I stuck the two forms in an envelope and mailed them off to my local caisse. As these things do, it took a few weeks before they processed the forms. And of course, there was a problem: My doctor hadn't put the date on the forms next to her signature. They sent them back to me, but didn't explain the problem.

By that point, my son had been born. And I also didn't know why the CPAM was sending the forms back. So Aléric called them and they said I needed to fill out another form, Imprimé no. 5, "Lié à la naissance prematurée." They also sent me an email explaining that the date was missing on the original two.

If it sounds convoluted, it was. But I got everything sorted and the CPAM started paying me.

Show Me the Money

As an auto entrepreneur, I received a payment for each day of my leave, paid out every 14 days, and a larger payment, "L’allocation forfaitaire de repos maternel," paid out in two halves. The first half arrives at the start of the leave and the second at eight weeks.

The daily payment is based on income, but is capped at €64.52 per day (for 2025). So that works out to around 900 euros every two weeks, but then they take a little tax out, so it's actually closer to 848 euros every two weeks.

L'allocation forfaitaire de repos maternel is 3,925 euros (for 2025).

What I Did During My Congé de Maternité

Anyone who tries to paint maternity leave as glamorous or relaxing is lying. Or trying to sell you something. While I appreciated the time to bond with my son, I was also looking forward to taking on writing projects again.

My son definitely falls into the easy baby category (thanks, little guy). That is to say, he sleeps well and doesn't cry that much. If he's crying, it's because there's a problem, like he just got some vaccines and is uncomfortable or he's hungry or sleepy. He soothes easily and is in general a laid-back baby (for now, who knows, this could all change).

But taking care of him, especially in those early weeks, was still a lot of work. Once we left the neonatal unit, he was exclusively breastfed, which meant I spent a lot of time feeding him. And then reading to him and playing with him, and then making sure I was taking care of myself, eating and showering. Aléric mostly changed all of his diapers and then bath time was a joint effort.

We wanted to avoid crowded, enclosed spaces, such as the supermarket, so figuring out when to go shopping became a bit of a calculation, as someone needed to stay home with the baby.

Since he was born in the summertime, we did get out of the house a fair amount. We'd take long (like two hour long) walks all around the city center, visiting various parks, going to the market, and so on. We even took him to a few museums, but these visits were very short (tip: go on the first Sunday of the month, first thing, when it's free and not very crowded).

During the heatwaves, we could only go out in the morning, then would be basically trapped in our apartment from 2 pm onward. Inside, with the windows and shutters closed. Like mole people. Or vampires. It was a little rough, even with an A/C in one room.

Although back-to-back heatwaves at the end of June made me nervous for what the summer had in store, July turned out to be relatively mild, so we were able to be out and about more often. The baby would sleep in his stroller or carrier as I walked around, so it was pretty easy to take him out when the weather cooperated.

If he got hungry, I'd find a quiet place to go and feed him. Sometimes, that would be a park bench, sometimes it would be on a little retaining wall. I got very comfortable breast feeding him in public.

Although taking care of the baby took up a considerable chunk of my time, I did still have some time for myself. I was able to write a few posts for this blog, work on my novel a bit, and read a lot. Actually, breast feeding is the perfect time for reading, since you're just kinda sitting there. I read like 20 books in the first two months alone.

What's Next?

At the end of the 16 weeks, it was back to work for me, technically. There is the option of taking a congé parental d'education, but that's not remunerated and it seems like too much of a complicated process for an auto entrepreneur.

While we discussed putting the baby in a creche or with an assistant maternelle, neither Aléric nor I are entirely comfortable with that just yet. He's still so little!

Luckily, my work is such that I can do it whenever, wherever. So I can take on projects again and work on them when Aléric is with the baby. Who knows how well this will work out, but the beauty of being an auto entrepreneur is that there is some flexibility.