Students who are pregnant, have children or are adopting

You and your baby's health and welfare

Welfare support is offered by the University and the Colleges -

https://www.studentwellbeing.admin.cam.ac.uk/university-and-other-support and https://www.studentwellbeing.admin.cam.ac.uk/college-pastoral-support.

University support includes the Students' Unions' Advice Service (SUAS) and the University Counselling Service (UCS).  

SUAS offers free, confidential and independent information, advice and support to all University of Cambridge students. Students can contact SUAS with any queries - www.studentadvice.cam.ac.uk/.  

UCS provides free, specialist mental health interventions through a professionally staffed confidential service to students - https://www.studentwellbeing.admin.cam.ac.uk/university-and-other-support/university-counselling-service-ucs.

Your Tutorial Department and College Nurse can offer support and information about issues including health and accommodation.  

Each College also has a Designated Childcare Contact. You can find out who your College’s Childcare Contact is here - https://www.childcare.admin.cam.ac.uk/college-support-student-parents/designated-college-childcare-contacts.  They can let you know what support your College offers student parents.  Many Colleges have family events such as Christmas carol services and parties, Easter Egg Hunts, summer parties and picnics.

The NHS Pregnancy and Baby Guide can be found here - https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/.   International students can find out more about healthcare in the UK here - https://www.internationalstudents.cam.ac.uk/arriving/healthcare-uk. 

The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) website offers information, support, courses and workshops on pregnancy and birth as well as opportunities to meet other local expectant parents - https://www.nct.org.uk/.

Parental leave, intermitting and funding

The University has developed practical guidance to help you, which includes information on maternity, paternity, shared parental and adoption leave.

https://www.studentwellbeing.admin.cam.ac.uk/files/maternity_paternity_policy.pdf

To take the appropriate break from your course, you will need to apply for non-medical intermission from your course of study. This website gives you instructions on how and when to do so: https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/your-course/graduate-study/your-student-status/non-medical-intermission.

You will also need to consider your funding source, contact them and make arrangements for your break from studying. If you are fully or partially funded by a College scholarship, then please contact your College’s Tutorial Department for advice.

Return to study following parental leave

If you would like to find out more about changing your mode of study upon your return from intermission, or what to do if you need to extend the date of your return, you can find out more about this here – https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/your-course/graduate-study/your…

Financial support for families in the UK, including help from the University with childcare costs

Information about available financial support and eligibility from the UK Government towards childcare costs can be found here.

This includes information about Child Benefit (which can be claimed from birth) depending on eligibility – https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit. 

To find out if you are entitled to any other government financial support you can look at the student section of the Turn2Us website here -  https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Your-Situation/Studying-age-16?  You can also look at www.entitledto.co.uk but as their calculators do not calculate entitlements accurately for students they recommend contacting an adviser to understand your personal circumstances.

The University of Cambridge offers financial support to help eligible student families with their OFSTED-registered childcare costs – The Childcare Support Fund. Further information can be found here - https://www.childcare.admin.cam.ac.uk/supportwithchildcarecosts