Everything I’d hand you before
we ever talk.

Two of them, and they stack rather than overlap. Pregnancy Disability Leave covers you while you are medically unable to work, certified by your provider. CFRA covers bonding time afterwards, and it applies to parents who did not give birth too.

Because they run back to back in California, a birthing parent can be looking at up to around 29 weeks of protected leave rather than the twelve most people are quoted. Federal FMLA sits underneath both and rarely changes the answer here.

For as long as your provider certifies that you are disabled, which for most births means a stretch before the birth and a recovery period after it. A caesarean birth is usually certified for longer than a vaginal one.

SDI is not your whole leave. When your disability period ends, SDI stops and Paid Family Leave takes over for bonding. They are two separate claims with two separate applications, and missing the second one is a common and expensive mistake.

In most cases your employer keeps paying their share while you are on protected leave, and you keep paying yours. What catches people out is how you pay your share when there is no paycheck to deduct it from.

Ask your employer, in writing, how your premiums will be collected while you are out and what happens if a payment is missed. Get that answer before you go, not after.

SDI and PFL are not treated the same way as each other, which surprises almost everyone. Do not assume the number you are quoted is the number that lands in your account.

Plan your household budget on a conservative figure, and check with whoever does your taxes before you rely on the total. I can tell you how the programs work, but I am not a tax professional and this is one place it is worth asking one.

Because California's own laws are stronger, and they generally give you more. FMLA is the federal floor. PDL and CFRA are what actually shape a California leave.

It still matters that your HR team knows the difference. Many national handbooks default to the federal rules, which is exactly why people get told twelve weeks when they may be entitled to considerably more.

Sometimes, and the order matters. Used well, PTO and sick time fill the gaps where state pay is lower or has not started yet. Used at the wrong moment, they can reduce what the state pays you for the same week.

This is one of the most common places money gets left on the table, and it depends entirely on your employer's policy. Worth mapping properly rather than guessing.

Whether you have access at all usually depends on choices made long before you were pregnant, specifically whether you were paying into the state program.

If you are self-employed and planning ahead, this is worth looking at early. If you are already pregnant and were not enrolled, the honest answer is that your options are narrower, and it is better to know that now than to find out at 36 weeks.

Later than most people assume. There is no rule that you must announce a pregnancy at a particular week. What you owe is reasonable notice of the leave itself, and that window is shorter than the anxiety suggests.

Two things move the timing. If you need accommodations, raise it when you need them. And if your role involves long projects or a handover, telling them earlier tends to buy goodwill rather than spend it.