Welcome Hanah.

Yes, the US needs to offer paid leave and longer leave too. I would wager that some of the maternal morbidity and mortality in the US is caused by working until the very last minute in order to save those 12 weeks. We're 39th in the world on maternal morbidity and mortality according to the Lancet (behind Canada, tiny Malta, Croatia, Serbia, and the United Arab Emirates).

I know I wasn't ready to return to work at 12 weeks -- I'd just gotten over the hit-by-a-truck-full-of-sleep-deprivation thing and was finally getting the hang of breastfeeding. I took 16 weeks, a mix of paid leave (thank you, generous employer), vacation, and unpaid leave.

I blog over at MOMocrats and have post there Work.Life.Policy on this subject.

HC//Thanks for sharing, Melissa.

Maryland is definitely behind other states. California, for example, has much better pre- and post-partum leave than we do. We need to whittle away at this state-by-state, because if we wait for federal action, it will never get done, just like most family issues!

Of course the U.S. is behind on this. We live in the shadow of Reaganism and the cornerstone of that philosophy is that the boss is always right and if it hurts the worker, tough. It would be nice to live in a society where a parent and child's needs are given more consideration than the short term interests of a corporation. That's not the USA, unfortunately.

The paucity of our leave (that goes for Paternal leave too) is simply unfathomable and barbaric (the word used by an Enlishman I met once) to most citizens of other industrialized nations. Just over the border in Canada, mothers get 15 weeks of leave paid at 55% and an additional 50 weeks of paid leave at 55% that can be shared with fathers. Hell, some form of paid leave can be found in nearly every country on the globe shy of Lesotho, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, and oh, yeah, the US.

As far as even having the ability to take unpaid leave, so many workers are exempted from FMLA (including anyone working for an employer with fewer than 50 employees, and anyone who worked less than 1250 hours the year prior to taking the leave). The inadequacies of FMLA will really begin to emerge as more and more companies avoid FMLA requirements by hiring workers as "independent contractors" instead of placing them directly on their payrolls.

I am also absolutely convinced that there's a corrolation between the million dollar industry of "sleep training" books here in the states, and the realities of moms forced to prematurely return to work while their children are infants.

Although I agree 100% that there should be increases in allowable leave, I don't agree that it should be paid leave. Although I respect every mother and father out there, unless I'm misuderstanding the concept of paid leave (and maybe I am), I don't think having paid leave is fair to the employees who choose not to have a child or those who literally (men) or medically are unable to have children. If an employee makes the decision to have a child that employee should be allowed to take time off without fear of job loss. But to receive pay, even if it's a fraction of the normal income, for not working because of a choice rather than medical necessity just doesn't seem fair to the other employees.

@Christine - would you still be opposed to paid leave if it were "family" leave - not necessarily parental? Plenty of people who have elderly sick parents, or spouses or partners are just as strapped as new parents when a crisis strikes. Leave for most Americans in the midst of some sort of medical crisis simply doesn't exist right now, and the inadequacies of the FMLA exist for those folks too.

I am a college professor, and my employer offers no paid maternity leave. As such, I was grading papers in my hospital bed and responding to student emails within 12 hours of giving birth. I received an email three days post-partum asking when I was going to be back in the office (although all of those arrangements had been made months in advance). I was back at work two weeks post-partum. Another colleague was pregnant at the same time and was also back at work two weeks post-partum. If our country made paid leave mandatory, I think it would do a lot for parents AND children. The countries that allow paid family leave seem to value the importance of parental support for their children. I think kids would do a lot better if their parents had time that they could take off of work to show their support - baseball games, school activities, etc. My parents never came to any of my school activities, and although I turned out OK, I find it disappointing that they financially couldn't afford to take the time off to be there for things that were important to me. I am hopeful that I will be able to afford to miss work to support my kids in their endeavors.

HC//Thanks for sharing your story, Jennifer.

You have obviously not owned a business with staff.

Consider.....you have a small business with six female staff....as I do. All but two have been with me for 15+ years ( =happy ).

All have several children....

Should I have been forced ( this is a very important term here )....forced to pay 18 weeks of paid time off....this would have amounted to over $200,000 dollars.

Why does anyone have the RIGHT to legislate this sort of thing?

What type of society do you wish to live in? One where the government dictates very unreasonable things like this...? Or one where such "decisions" are made, or not made, based upon the employers and employees relationship and agreements?

Think hard before you answer.

Respectfully,