I did not know she was on the leave. Thank you for explaining.
Oh yes.
However, Mary is not in the same situation as ordinary people. In the sense that her job is flexible enough for her to decide when and to what extent she wish to return to official duties.
The court announced that by mid December, I believe (the Guards Hussars event), she would no longer have official duties. That's when the official maternity leave started.
From then on it was certain that Mary would not attend the New Year Courts.
My guess is that we won't see much of Mary this side of Easter. And that she by then will have gradually ended her maternity leave.
Maternity leave after all is a right, not a must, even for ordinary people.
The same thing applies to paternity leave, which you can have before your child turns nine. Somehow I don't think Mary or for that matter Frederik will go on paternity leave.
They may at some point decide to cut down on the amount of engagements for a period. Or do like the Norwegian CP-couple, go on, what is basically six months paternity leave.
For ordinary Danes the rules are that the mother (she's after all the pregnant one) has the right to go on leave 4 weeks prior to giving birth. (Mary is scheduled to give birth in mid January, so that fits the timetable).
The father has a right to 2 weeks of leave within 14 weeks after the birth has taken place.
The mother has the right to 14 weeks of leave after giving birth.
This leave can be extended with additional 32 weeks, to be shared by the parents as they wish.
(There are a number of additional rules, regarding extension of the leave and so on).
Now, you don't have to use all the weeks right after giving birth. You can save a number of weeks for later. Before the child turns nine, one of the parents can use the remaining weeks on paternity leave. If you have more than one child, you have more weeks you can save to be used later on.
Some use that opportunity, for example when the child start at school, in case there are problems or if you simply need a breather.
During all these weeks you get paid the amount you would get if you were unemployed.
I know this is pretty complicated stuff and I've tried to keep it as simple as possible.
So to sum up: Most women (I know of) go on leave for 6 to 9 months and most fathers go on leave for 2 to 4 weeks.