part one: policy and legal crap

Sometimes I forget I got my Masters because I finished right before I had Annie and my world changed so drastically, yet I actually use what I learned all the time at work and am going to use some information here as well. In my Human Resources Management class, we did a group project on a pertinent issue in HR. I worked with two other girls and we selected Maternity Leave as our topic. (Ironically, the one girl became accidentally pregnant right after and had an extremely difficult time figuring out her working situation - I would see her at meetings in Putnam County and we would laugh about our project in action.)

FMLA is the guiding force in U.S. maternity policy, and it basically allows 12 weeks time off for birth/adoption, serious illness, or caring for a loved one with a serious illness. During this time, there are no stipulations that you must be paid; but you have the right to keep your job or an "equivalent" one. Also, this policy only applies to employers with 50+ employees, so if you work for a small company, they do not have to follow any of the policy. Isn't this just common sense and common decency? We need a policy?

In Canada, maternity leave policy is a little different. In Canada, provided you have worked a certain number of hours (comparable to the number here), you receive 50 weeks of paid leave at 55% of your salary and your job is protected for 52 weeks. The Scandinavian countries have even better policies than Canada. And I had to send numerous emails to my HR rep to state my case to return to work at four days past 12 weeks. Several responses along the lines of "this is not the norm."

Let me give you a scenario: You are pregnant with your first and go into premature labor at 32 weeks and are put on bedrest. Doctors can't stop labor when it starts again at 35 weeks, and you give birth to a 5 pound preemie who is generally healthy but spends 5 days in the NICU for breathing difficulties. Before you even had your baby, you used 3 weeks of your FMLA leave. When your baby would have been 40 weeks (due date), you have already used 8 weeks of your FMLA leave. When you have to return to work, you baby will only be 9 weeks old and a little smaller and weaker than other babies that age. And you have to put him in full time childcare with strangers. And the lactation room at your work is miserable and your boss never says anything, but you can feel him looking at you every time you leave your desk to pump.

I can't figure out how to hyperlink an article, but I just read this interesting article from 2005 in USA Today regarding U.S. maternity leave. There are two points I wanted to bring out. First, the article said that the reason policies are better in Europe is that the feminist movement in Europe focused on special treatment for mothers, such as maternity leave and childcare; while in the feminist movement in the U.S. focused on equal treatment for women, caring nothing at all for mothers. See the difference?

The other interesting part in the article is that American women just accept policy here as a given. No politician is going to win any supporters by advocating for nationally paid maternity leave and up to a year of job protection for new moms. The last two moms at my work (secretarial, fairly low paid positions, and one is a single mom) each returned to work at six and seven weeks respectively. That was the magic number because the United Way pays for our disability insurance, which provides six weeks pay at 60% of salary. This is generous by U.S. standards and we are supposed to feel grateful for our awesome benefits.

Paid maternity leave and longer job protection will result in increased birth rates, increased rates of breastfeeding, and increased family stability and happiness. Look it up, the U.S. birth rate is dropping, which may cause all sorts of future problems.