Last week, I took my kids (sans husband) to Los Angeles to visit family. Our first flight was a puddle jumper from Pittsburgh to Cleveland, from there on to LA. That itty bitty plane had just one wonderfully attentive flight attendant. Her name was Marie and she was from Haiti.
Marie took a liking to Elaine, my 3 yr old. She commented that she was looking forward to when her daughter started talking. I asked her how old her daughter was.
“Two months”, was her response.
“Oh, wonderful! Congratulations! When did you return back to work?”
“Well, I was supposed to be off for four months, but they (the airline) called me back in at six weeks. I was supposed to be on a day shift: Newark, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and back in one day. Instead they have me away from home for three days straight. So, I don’t get to see my daughter. It makes breastfeeding impossible. There’s nowhere to pump in this little plane, and I have no time anyway.”
“Ugh. I’m so sorry. Who is with your daughter?”
“My husband and a cousin, but it isn’t the same. I’m her mama and she should be with me.”
So, I stood up and gave her a hug and she showed me pictures of her daughter.
Folks, this ain’t right.
The United States is the only first world country that has NO national paid maternity leave policy. None, zero, zip, nada, nothing. Click here to see how the rest of the world stacks up. Uganda has the next lowest at four weeks. Iceland gets a whole year.
Over 50 countries also offer paid paternity leave so dad can have time with the baby too. TheU.S.? Nope, no paternity leave here either. More information here too.
The closest we get is the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). However FMLA is only 12 weeks unpaid leave and only for those companies who have more than 50 employees. That excludes many, many employers from having to comply. It excludes many women from the benefits. In fact, that’s almost half of all mothers.
Employers, in most cases, will not make accommodations for new parents. Why? It costs them money. It’s a short-term benefit for long-term loss. Parents need to have the ability to raise their babies. Women need to be given ample opportunity to breastfeed.
When the AAP tells us “Thus, infant feeding should not be considered as a lifestyle choice but rather as a basic health issue.” We need to listen.
Employers, are you listening?
When I taught at an institution for economically disadvantaged women, I heard many stories of women who had to quit their jobs because they couldn’t afford childcare. Being at home, on welfare, allowed them to raise their kids, have food on the table and pay rent. Having a low paying job would only allow for 2 out of 3.
Way back when I was a bank teller, at the tender age of 21, one of my fellow tellers had 2 year old twins. She had a full time job in a bank that netted her $15,000 a year. After paying rent and daycare for two, she had only $85 a month for food and clothes. I bought her lunch once a week because she would often go without.
A past student of mine, who had a very high-powered job, was required to go back to work four days after giving birth. Yep, you read that right – four days. She told me that there was no one else who could do her job, so she had to go back. She hoped to pump but wasn’t sure how it would work out.
I met a teenager who was working at Subway. She had her baby with her at work because she couldn’t afford childcare. Her manager was, thankfully, understanding, so she was able to do this.
Stories like this are all too common. We need a national paid maternity/paternity leave policy. We need it for all women and all families. Our system is broken. We need our legislators to bring us up to par with the other 181 countries in the world who have national paid maternity/paternity leave policies.
Sat Nam.
I couldn’t agree more. The other downside of FMLA is that you have to be with your current employer for a year before you qualify (even if the employer has more than 50 employees). So, if you manage to change jobs while you are pregnant, or even before you are pregnant, you ae not guarenteed your job after you have the baby….then what do you do?
Within my own employer, I had a call with an offshore resource (in India) who wondered WHY I was back at work with a 4 month old?!? I told him I had no choice. He couldn’t believe that India had better maternity leave policies.
With all the current discussions of women’s health and rights, I’d love to see this topic start to enter the discussion.
Sara ~
I’d love to see this discussion enter the political arena. This is something that all women deserve. It’s got far reaching benefits and very little short term pain for employers. I’d pay a bit more in taxes so that all women could benefit.
What I find most disturbing it is not the fact that we do not have paid maternity leave but that in many places we don’t even have unpaid maternity leave. I was working the equivalent to a full time job in hours, but in paper it was part time, so I had no benefits what so ever, I just left work for good to raise my child. This actually is more advantageous for us economically, daycare would be more expensive than what I made at work. Of course, I find being a stay at home mom very rewarding and I would not take other choice.
I do have a friend, though, that worked for years for a company, she was a very good worker and worked through the 9th month in archaeological excavations. Gave birth, took (unpaid) time off, and when she was getting ready to go back they told her not to even bother because they were not taking her back. In my country of origin that is illegal, I was shocked when I heard of it.
One thing that gets ignored is that, in the federal government’s infinite wisdom, the 12 weeks unpaid was laid as a foundation for the states to develop better plans off of. Nineteen states have done absolutely nothing to improve on FMLA. This shows that leaving it up to the states just isn’t going to do hack it.
We may be the land of “the free” but we are also the land of “oh and go fuck yourself while your at it”. :/