Job Discussion Forums

bdbarnett1 · Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 7:57 am Post subject: IMSS Maternity Benefit

Can anyone tell me how IMSS maternity benefits work? Not an issue at the moment, but who knows, right Smile

Anyone have personal experience? What childcare options are available for when the mother goes back to work?

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

I'm not certain if it is universal, but in our case, the mother got 42 days leave before the birth and 42 days afterwards. We managed to get an extra 2 weeks on the front end during the swine flu closures plus an extra week due to a stubborn baby that didn't want to come out!

We received 100% pay coverage during the maternity leave, though that broke down to something like 65% being covered by IMSS and the rest by the school.

We were lucky enough to have me being able to play stay at home dad for the first 2 years of both of our children's lives, but from ages 2-4 we sent both to an IMSS daycare nearby, which was fully covered on costs. I believe that IMSS daycare is available to children as young as 4 months for working mothers.

bdbarnett1 · Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 12:27 pm Post subject:

I realize this may vary, but were you happy with the IMSS daycare situation?

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

We were, yes, but we also knew that the particular IMSS facilities in our neighborhood were quite good. There are quite a number that aren't....it varies as you say.

A back up option was to look for private care that is connected to IMSS - some kind of hybrid scheme. I never looked into the costs on that, but I imagine there would have been something to pay.

BadBeagleBad · Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 1:59 pm Post subject:

Like Guy says, it all varies. When I was pregnant, I had maternity care at an IMSS clinic and it was fine. The clinic was very nice, at the time I lived in Colonia Anzures so my clinic was in Polanco, and everyone told me it was a very underutilized clinic. But I have had care at other IMSS facilities, both in DF and now in Zacatecas, and I think the only thing that varies is wait time and how nice the clinic is, I didn´t notice any difference in quality of care. I don´t have any experience firsthand with the IMSS daycare facilities.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Ah that reminds me...we didn't choose IMSS for the actual birth of our children. The mother had private coverage through work so we chose a top notch private hospital, with about 80% of the costs covered by insurance.

I think an IMSS hospital would have been fine for the delivery, but we were aiming for a water birth both times and IMSS doesn't do it.

bdbarnett1 · Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 2:18 pm Post subject:

MotherF · Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 2:53 pm Post subject:

bdbarnett1 · Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 2:55 pm Post subject: