**Doc. 1281**

**From:** Rachel Moreland \[rachel@odk.org\]\
**Posted At:** Thursday, January 11, 2007 9:13 AM\
**Conversation:** Are you crazy?\
**Posted To:** Comments\
\
**Subject:** Are you crazy?

*"A Harvard study of 168 countries found that only 4 don\'t offer some
form of paid leave for new mothers\--Papua New Guinea, Swaziland,
Lesotho, and the United States of America."*

 

That's crazy. I heard that there are plans to "scale back" the FMLA....
Which is even crazier. It should not be retracted, it should be
expanded. Switzerland offers 1 full year PAID parental leave... and the
US only offers a few months of UNPAID leave... no wonder our kids are so
messed up and post partum depression is on the rise in the US. Not to
mention PPD related deaths. For a country that is supposedly so
"enlightened" and "advanced" we sure are -backwards about our
priorities...

 

*"The FMLA is a good start, but we can do better. The ability for
parents to take leave without fear of loosing their job is important.
That said, \"Paid leave significantly decreases infant mortality, while
other leave has no significant effect. This suggests that if leave is
provided without adequate payment and job protection, parental
leave-taking behavior may not be very responsive\.... As a result, other
leave does not have a significant effect on improving infant health,\"
notes an Economic Journal report. In other words, it\'s paid family
leave that makes the big difference."*

Only 46.5% of private sector workers are currently covered under the law
because it only applies to those who work in companies with 50 or more
employees, I work for a company of only 6 employees -- what happens if I
get pregnant? 

Paid leave need not be a burden for business either. In California, the
only state with paid family leave, the funding for paid leave comes from
a small employee paycheck deduction, not out of the pocket of
businesses.

 

Check out this story:

[[http://www.momsrising.org/manifesto/chapter2]{.underline}](http://www.momsrising.org/manifesto/chapter2)

 

My own brother and his wife are having their own problems. Problems,
which would be alleviated if there existed, 12 months (hell even 6
months) of paid parental leave at either of their jobs. My sister-in-law
is Post Partum and on medication, but she is working 40 hours a week and
constantly has to take off from her job to pick up my sick niece from
daycare. Sick because she goes to daycare where there is more abundance
of germs than her own home, but she can't stay because going to daycare
got her sick. Right now my sister-in-law is in fear of losing her job.
She took the 3 months of maternity leave. UNPAID maternity leave and
they barely scrapped by (only with the help of a well-off grandmother
supplementing their finances).

 

If she or my brother could take parental leave without fear of losing
their 1 bedroom apartment and their car then my sister-in-law could take
the time to go to therapy to treat her PPD, instead of relying strictly
on drugs to sustain her sanity -- she would have time to develop a bond
with her daughter that she craves but is unable to form because she
spends so little time with her and the extra time she does spend is
because she had to leave work early to pick her daughter up from daycare
(which means she's more stressed and unable to form a bond -- which
exacerbates her PPD). If my brother could take six months of parental
leave (paid) then he could stay home with the baby for a while, they
would not have to worry about so many doctors bills because she would
not be going to daycare where she is getting so sick all the time. AND
they wouldn't have to worry about the COST of daycare (I personally pay
\$492 a month -- care for infants/babies cost MORE).

 

Scaling back FMLA would cause more problems than currently exist.
Expanding FMLA would alleviate situations like my brother and his wife
are currently going through. Think about it.

Sincerely,

 

Rhiannon