in the Turkish state pension system, the employee cannot directly pay premiums. he/she must have been employed, and the employer should deduct the premium from his/her wage and transfer the premium to the pension system. there are exceptions to this, and motherhood is one of them. "maternity leave" is not correct in this sense, because it implies that the mother starts to work again at a certain time. however, a mother may never have worked after birth, and can still benefit from this exception.