Other countries have months of maternity leave. According to scientific studies, babies don’t realize they are their own person separate from their mother until about six months of age. But most places of employment if they give you anything, the most they will give you off is 6 weeks. If you have a C Section, it takes longer than 6 weeks to recover. If you have a NICU baby, your baby may not come home right away. Then when your baby does come home it is crucial to spend the time lost bonding with your baby. More women would consider having babies if an appropriate amount of time for maternity leave was legally acceptable. Not to mention the lack of support we have from some states for lactation breaks. Some of us are having to choose between eating lunch or expressing breast milk to feed our babies during our work days. Because some states don’t have to pay you for your lactation breaks. We are very behind as a country in supporting mothers and infants. Puppies get to stay with their mothers longer than human infants do before mothers have to return to work. This is unacceptable.
I do see where you’re coming from, but from the companies perspective they can’t afford to be without workers. And it wouldn’t be right to hire someone to fill in than fire them when the woman does decide she wants to come back to work. Back in the old days women gave birth and went back to work the next day.
Actually to reply to the comment above: back in the old days women were not only healthier but they were supported better by their community.
I believe it’s totally feasible to allow more time for mothers to recover than 6 weeks. And it’s important for families to have that time to bond & recover to avoid much more damaging effects down the road.
Besides, I have first handedly watched coworkers take advantage of paid leave for much more minor & seemingly prolonged ailments.
Agree and insurance companies can put up the money for it…yes it would very slightly cut into their billion dollar profits but it’s the right thing to do.
True.
I have also proposed a policy to help new mothers and working parents get more quality time with their children.
Currently the U.S. has no federal paid family leave, because the GOP usually rejects legislation like that. They rejected a 12 week paid family leave bill. Six months is too liberal right now. We will have to work on trying to get 12 weeks paid federal leave, and then it will take some years after that to try to pass legislation for more time.
Here is my proposal. In addition to 12 weeks paid federal maternal leave, I also suggested some family leave options for the dads, for college students, and unpaid 8 hours off per week for both working parents when their leave expires.