Your rights as a self-employed mother

Maternity leave

Self-employed mothers are entitled to a maximum of 12 weeks maternity leave. If you give birth to multiples, you are entitled to 13 weeks of leave. You can apply for this through your health insurance fund.

If you would like to receive a maternity allowance (via your health insurance fund), you must take at least 3 weeks of compulsory maternity leave. This means you are not allowed to work for 3 weeks. The first week starts 7 days before the expected date of birth. The remaining 2 weeks run until 2 weeks after the birth of your child.

The remaining 9 weeks are called optional maternity leave. You may take up to 2 weeks of your 9 weeks before the birth. This means that you can take maternity leave at the earliest 3 weeks before the expected delivery date. The remaining optional maternity leave can be freely chosen in periods of seven days, up to 36 weeks after the end of the compulsory maternity leave after childbirth.

For the current amounts of the associated maternity allowance, you can visit the RIZIV website.

Maternity help

As a self-employed mother, under certain conditions, you are also entitled to 105 free service vouchers.

You can use these for household help through a recognized company.

When you have given birth, the government will notify your social insurance fund. Your social insurance fund will then check whether you qualify for maternity help and you will receive a letter with the necessary information and application form.

Exemption from social contributions after childbirth

Do you receive benefits as a self-employed person during your maternity leave? Then you do not have to pay social contributions for the quarter after the quarter in which you gave birth and you retain all your social rights. Since 1 January 2026, this has been extended from 1 to 2 quarters (for births in 2026). As a customer of Liantis social insurance fund, you do not need to submit an application for this; the exemption is granted automatically.

Self-employed mothers with a Social FSPSE benefit from a premium exemption for two quarters. More detailed information and the specific conditions can be found on our website.

Your rights as a father or co-parent

As a self-employed father or co-parent you are entitled, under certain conditions, to paternity leave, which comes with a benefit paid by the social insurance fund.

Paternity or birth leave amounts to a maximum of 20 days, to be taken in full or half days, or a combination of both.

Does taking 20 days leave seem unfeasible? You are not obliged to take all 20 days. If you take no more than 8 days of leave, you can supplement this with 15 free service vouchers. With 1 service voucher you can ‘buy’ 1 hour of household help from an accredited company.

Please note that you must always submit the application to the social insurance fund within the application period. This means no later than the last day of the quarter following the quarter of your child's birth. Was your child born in the last month of the quarter? Then you have an extra month to submit your application.

Are foster parents and adoptive parents also entitled to leave?

As a self-employed person, you can take foster parent leave if you take in a minor foster child in your family for at least six months. This must therefore be long-term foster care. Are you adopting a child? Then you can take adoption leave as a self-employed person. 

As a foster parent or adoptive parent, you can each take a maximum of six weeks of foster parent leave or adoption leave. The leave can be extended by four weeks, to be taken by one parent or shared between both parents.

Would you like to take foster parent leave or adoption leave as a self-employed person? Then you must submit an application to your health insurance fund in time.