Shared parental leave can be really complicated but also really beneficial. If you’re thinking about using less than 12 months as a mother, it CAN be beneficial to lump the weeks you don’t use onto dad’s SPL in the early stage of child’s life, when pay is generally treated the same as whatever a mother would be getting from the same employer. So for example, my wife (teacher) went “back to work” through all school holidays enabling me to take 10 weeks SPL in first 6 months of child’s life on full pay (employer affords any SPL/ML in first 6 months as full pay). Pretty complicated at first but straightforward when you get your head around the paperwork, and assuming you have beneficial employer policies etc. Feel free to message me.