I have always found the issue of the US laws on maternity leave particularly fascinating, I found this article about paid family leave on the Ms. Magazine website,
Maternal leave in the United States most definitely leaves something to be desired. Some new moms feel pressure from their job to go back to work too soon after having a baby. Some go back to work just a few short weeks after having the baby. It's no surprise that the U.S. is rated amongst the worst country for maternal and parental leave. This is mostly because of the cost of not returning to work, as most companies don't have paid maternal leave. In fact, the law states in some states is that your job is only protected for up to 12 weeks after the baby is born. Other countries have a maternal leave for up to 4 years that is paid for by the state. There is time for growth and development between not only the mother and child, but for the entire family. Do you think that the US could benefit from a program like this? Why or why not?
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I completely agree. The US has a very business like approach to having babies and there needs to be more focus on bonding and adjustment. We have discussed this issue in many of my anthropology courses as there is direct biological relation to this. The disparity of maternity leave was first brought to my attention when I watched Rikki Lake's, incredibly biased yet interesting, documentary The Business of Being Born. There are only 4 countries in the world that have no law requiring paid time off: Liberia, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, and the US.
that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternity_leave
It is incredibly important for the mother to spend time with her newborn because bonding occurs minutes within birthing; it is also important to try to breast feed the baby to secure a bond. Having time with the infant is crucial in a historically biological standpoint. Im not saying that women need to either be a mother or have a career but it has been proven that breast feeding and bonding is essential to the health of the infant and the mother. This is why there are higher rates of postpartum depression (and attention has been brought to the issue). Women schedule C-sections according to work schedules or convenient times which is partly a product of our society telling us "we can have it all"....on a schedule. I believe it is necessary to have paid maternity leave. Considering all other countries have longer and paid leaves, we should take note and see that we might be doing it wrong.
It is definitely a sad affair that a mother's time with her child is cut short because of the lack of government funding, however it would be ignorant and overambitious to agree to more than that with the current state of the national economy. Unfortunately, our suffering economy can only improve with the cutting of corners and unfortunately maternity and paternity leave are two of those corners. I would also support this by saying that an employer makes obvious the terms of maternity leave when a woman accepts the job and/or chooses to get pregnant and take time off, and if the woman decides that those few weeks are not enough than she needs to re-prioritize and consider her loyalties. I do not mean to say that if a woman cannot create a strong enough mother-child bond within a month that she is unfit to bear a child, but she needs to consider her emotions and career prior to getting pregnant while employed by such a company.
The time a mother gets paid maternity leave in the United States is far too little compared to the amount of time she needs to be home with her new baby. This has been a major focus in my child psychology class right now because mothers are not spending enough time with their babies at birth. This directly affects the baby in both the immediate future and later in life. Without an adequate amount of time at home with the mother, the baby is unable to form a secure attachment and bond.
Unfortunately, with our economy as it is, it is difficult to change this short amount of maternity leave time right now. Even though our economy is bad and businesses can't afford to pay a longer maternity leave, I think that our society needs to realize that in the long run it will benefit everybody if these babies are born into a secure attachment because forming this secure attachment can affect several aspects of a child's life once they get older.
I also have similar opinion for this post. This is sad and it is problem. Current depression is quite serious compare to any time on the history. Cut edge to protect the main industry is a good idea or a necessary evil. However, we should think about how hard to make it back to the original. Like we or other parents or other grandparents experienced the economy will be okay eventually then, what can we do? When we think about cutting government support, we need to think about how hard to make decision to put more support.