(1)Subject to subsection (2), an employee’s maternity leave period commences with the earlier of—
(a)the date which, in accordance with section 74(1) to (3), she notifies to her employer as the date on which she intends her period of absence from work in exercise of the right conferred by section 71 to commence, and
(b)the first day after the beginning of the sixth week before the expected week of childbirth on which she is absent from work wholly or partly because of pregnancy.
(2)Where the employee’s maternity leave period has not commenced by virtue of subsection (1) when childbirth occurs, her maternity leave period commences with the day on which childbirth occurs.
(3)The Secretary of State may by order vary subsections (1) and (2).