One of the biggest issues facing our country today is the declining birth rate. Skyrocketing inflation, rising costs for basic necessities such as food, housing, childcare, and healthcare, are all huge contributors. In a society where having a dual income is necessary in order to survive, we need to reform the way we approach parental leave. In the US we are lucky to get six weeks of unpaid leave for the mother and just two weeks for the father. Most businesses don’t have any parental leave policies in place at all, instead relying on short term disability, which one may or may not qualify for. So, instead one would have to use PTO in order to get any sort of leave. If one works part time or starts a job where PTO doesn’t accrue until after a year, the expectation is to give birth and go to work the next day, or one may lose their job (which are difficult to come by these days, but that’s another matter). Giving birth is a huge medical procedure that oftentimes involves extensive surgery. Not only are we not given time to heal, but our babies are separated from us at such an early, vulnerable stage and put into the care of complete strangers. I attribute many of our societal problems to the lack of care for mothers and the far too early separation of infants from their mothers and fathers. The collapse of the family unit began when we stopped valuing the miracle of pregnancy and the importance for rest, recovery, and bonding after a child has been born into the family. I propose a federally mandated three months paid maternal leave and at least one month paid paternal leave that is fully paid, with an additional three months maternal leave at 1/2 pay. That allows six months for mothers to rest and bond with their babies without fear of losing their jobs or possibly their homes if their income is required to make ends meet (which is the case for most Americans today). We need to value mothers, fathers, pregnancy, and children more so now than ever. Providing time for rest and financial support is the best way we can do that.
I’m so glad you proposed this. I wholeheartedly agree.
I would also maybe like to include a bullet point to include that if a Mama is suffering with Postpartum Depression and Anxiety that she can have either additional time off to work on her treatment/seek professional help with documentation from her PCP. 
We absolutely need to reform how we approach postpartum care. There are so many health issues that can follow a birth, both mental and physical, but many women leave the hospital feeling overwhelmed, underprepared, and unheard or misunderstood when they do voice concerns. Not only do we need to offer better options for mothers in need, but we need to destigmatize PPD, postpartum rage, and other issues. When a mother says she feels like she’s a danger to her baby, calling CPS should be the last resort, not one of the first options. There’s so many issues surrounding postpartum care here in the US that our government should really focus on fixing.
1000%!!! I truly believe if there was more awareness, research, help and just all around compassion and understanding for women going through postpartum, the fear of staring a family would be alleviated just for this alone. Thank you for sharing this thread so we can all get to talking about it more!
I love the idea of this however I do feel that it should be longer than six months total. I understand corporate America needs workers and such.m, however there is so much that goes into a child’s first year of life and many children rely on their caregivers full time until they’re able to talk, express themselves, eat, walk, etc independently. Parents would be less likely to worry (and therefore not have children or leave the workforce if they’re able to) if they had more faith that their child would be okay in someone else’s hands. There should be something in place to truly allow people to enjoy time with their children because what is the point of having a child when after a few months you’re essentially pulled away from that child for almost half of your day five out of seven days. At that point we’re paying others to raise our children so we can work to afford to live.
I absolutely think it should be longer, but unfortunately I can foresee a lot of push back for just the six months. We need to introduce this slowly, and hopefully as American business owners become more comfortable with the idea they’ll be more willing to increase the amount of time parents get to stay home with their babies.
If we do not federally mandate, perhaps we can offer a tax break to employers that offer this as part of a benefits package.
While I do think that is a good alternative, there are so many working Americans that don’t get benefits at all. You should be secure in your job if you choose to have a baby even if you’re only working part-time (especially with the awful job market we’re currently experiencing). That is a good suggestion, though!
I would also like to add, there that has been a lot of research done that has shown that when employees are given longer PAID parental leave, the MORE likely they are to come back to their jobs and they happier they are! This can be seen in countries who give 6 months+ paid parental leave for both parents (look at Sweden, Denmark, Bulgaria, the UK, Norway, etc).
When you give parents (especially Mothers) fully paid leave, it “significantly increases breastfeeding initiation and duration, which has innumerable benefits for moms and babies, including improving the function of the digestive and immune system of the child, and reduces risk of breast and ovarian cancer, diabetes, and obesity for the mother.” This can cut down on future healthcare costs by helping minimize these issues.
Here is a snippet from the NationalPartnership.org regarding Paid Parental Leave:
- Paid maternity leave improves maternal and infant health, including physical health and well-being.
- Women who receive paid leave have a lower chance of reporting intimate partner violence.
- Increases of paid parental and/or maternity leave decreases rates of infant mortality.
- Paid leave has reduced the incidence of head trauma caused by abuse among children less than 2 years of age due to lower levels of stress and abusive behavior of parents.
- One study found that the introduction of paid maternity leave in five states (California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island) led to a reduction in low birthweight and preterm births, especially for Black mothers.
- Several studies have found that that the length of paid leave matters for maternal and infant health.
- Less than eight weeks of paid leave is linked to a reduction in overall health status and increased depression.
- Every additional week of paid leave a mother takes reduces the likelihood of reporting poor mental well-being by 2 percent.
- Longer paid leave significantly increases breastfeeding initiation and duration, which has innumerable benefits for moms and babies, including improving the function of the digestive and immune system of the child, and reduces risk of breast and ovarian cancer, diabetes, and obesity for the mother.
- Paid leave greater than 12 weeks increases infant immunization uptake.
- One literature review found that, compared with mothers who were only able to take unpaid leave or no leave at all, for mothers who were able to take paid leave:
- Their chances of being re-hospitalized are reduced by more than half (51 percent).
- The likelihood of their infants being re-hospitalized in the first year is reduced by almost half (47 percent).
- They are almost twice as likely to have more success in managing stress and engaging in regular exercise.
- That literature review also found that among heterosexual couples, paid leave for fathers can improve their engagement with the infant, decrease the intensity of depressive symptoms in the mother, and improve the child’s overall development.
Black, Latinx, and Low-Wage Workers Bear the Brunt of Lack of Paid Leave
- There are racial and ethnic disparities in workers’ access to paid leave, with Black and Latino* workers being less likely than their white counterparts to have any paid leave. This is, in part, due to past and present systemic racism that has resulted in significant health and economic inequities.
- For people working in low-wage and part-time jobs — most of whom are women and people of color — access to paid leave is limited; among the 25 percent lowest-paid workers, only 9 percent had access to paid family leave in 2020.
- A disproportionate number of workplace pregnancy discrimination claims were filed by Black women between 2011 and 2015. These claims included being fired for taking maternity leave, being denied a promotion or raise due to pregnancy, having inadequate maternity leave allowance, and having to endure physically taxing work conditions or extreme manual labor during pregnancy.
Recommendations:
- Congress must pass the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act, which would guarantee access to paid leave and meet the needs of pregnant people, caregivers, and families. Paid leave must include family care and personal medical leave in order to meet the basic needs of working people, families, and the economy.
- Until a comprehensive federal paid leave law is passed, states and businesses should join California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, the District of Columbia, and the almost 200 major companies that have announced new or expanded paid leave programs**.
- Employers should consider supplementing the baseline benefit provided through the existing FAMILY Act by providing additional weeks of leave and/or supplementing the amount of wage replacement employees receive.
- Congress must pass the Healthy Families Act to allow working people to take smaller increments of leave, in hours or days, to care for themselves and their families.
- Congress must pass the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act to ensure that all working parents who need to express breastmilk during the workday have access to reasonable break time and a private, non-bathroom space.
- Employers should nurture a workplace culture that supports leave-taking by all new parents and those caring for them, regardless of gender, and ensure employees returning after leave have adequate sick leave and schedule flexibility, as well as access to a clean and private location for lactation if they choose to breastfeed.
- Congress must pass the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (H.R. 1065) to address pregnancy discrimination by requiring that employers provide reasonable accommodations to allow pregnant workers to continue working safely without risking their health or their pregnancies.
** To be more inclusive of diverse gender identities, this bulletin uses “Latinx” to describe people who trace their roots to Latin America, except where the research uses Latino/a and Hispanic, to ensure fidelity to the data.*
*** For more information on the growth of paid leave policies, please see Leading on Leave: Companies With New or Expanded Paid Leave Policies (August 2020).*