A heartbroken mother doesn’t know how she can be expected to return to work before her newborn even makes it home from the hospital.
The mom, who welcomed her baby 10 weeks before her scheduled due date, shared on TikTok that she will have no choice but to leave her premature baby in the NICU without her there.
New mom Lena was not expecting her baby girl until February. However, she decided to make an appearance in early December, 10 weeks before her original due date. Since then, the little girl has been monitored in the NICU.
While she is doing well and is expected to go home soon, it likely will not be until after her mother has already returned to work due to California’s maternity leave policies.
: CEO Praises The ‘Grit’ Of Mom On Maternity Leave Who Was Called Back Into To Work 48 Hours After Giving Birth — ‘This Is Not Inspiring’
While maternity leave policies all depend on your specific workplace, most mothers can expect 8 to 12 weeks off after giving birth under California’s Paid Family Leave program. After that, you may be entitled to another four weeks of unpaid leave, depending on your work status and any underlying health conditions you may have.
Moms who have undergone C-sections could even receive up to 22 weeks off, including up to four weeks before the scheduled due date and 18 weeks after the birth. However, since Lena’s baby came early, the typical expectations were tossed aside.
Lena posted a TikTok video cradling her baby, still hooked up to tubes and wires in the NICU, and expressed how frustrated she was with the treatment of working moms in the United States and the lack of support they receive. “I spent my whole maternity leave in the hospital with my preemie. Now I’m expected to go back to work before she’s home,” Lena wrote in the text overlay of the video, calling California maternity leave “a joke.”
While her frustration with the leave is absolutely justified, Lena is at least lucky to be in a state that has mandatory family leave that includes maternity. Only 13 states do: California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Washington, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Oregon, as well as the District of Columbia.
: Moms Lose An Average Of $9500 By Taking Maternity Leave, Despite Taking Far Less Time Off Than They Need
“I had to leave my twins at six weeks to go back to work because I used the other six weeks on bed rest before having them. Worst thing ever and I regret it every day since,” one mother shared in the comments section.
“I had to go back to work two weeks after my son was born so that I could take more time off when he finally came home. Our maternity leave in this country is so broken,” another NICU parent wrote.
Sarah Chai | Canva Pro
Some mothers revealed that they were even given ultimatums and had to quit their jobs in order to take care of their babies.
Asha Santos, a partner at Littler Mendelson P.C., who advises U.S. companies on employment law and how to build respect in the workplace, explained to Harvard Business Review that simply offering maternity leave to mothers isn’t enough of an incentive to keep them as employees after they return to work. It’s about supporting them, not just throwing out an arbitrary number of weeks off. She said, “How a woman is treated in the months leading up to her maternity leave and then during leave and shortly thereafter when she returns to work will determine whether or not a company will be able to retain her.”
European countries such as Greece and Poland offer parents up to 43 weeks of paid maternity leave at 63% of the employee’s salary. As of right now, only federal workers in the U.S. are automatically entitled to up to four weeks of paid maternity leave, but 4 and 43 weeks are vastly different lengths of time, reflecting the value corporate America puts on their working mothers.
Apiwat Tumanil | Shutterstock
When it comes to maternity policies, NICU parents and the heartbreaking circumstances they have to deal with need to be taken into consideration. Some of these babies are enduring so many medical hurdles that they will not make it home until well past their original due date. Their parents cannot afford to step away from the bedside, let alone focus on work.
They face extraordinary emotional, physical, and financial challenges while caring for their newborns — much more than the average parent who gets maternity leave. On top of that, they have mountains of medical bills to worry about since a good chunk of their maternity leave is unpaid.
The least their workplaces can do for them is allow them the necessary time to adjust to their new life.
: Pregnant Woman Considers Reporting Her Boss After He Forced Her To Attend A Meeting While She Was In ‘Active Labor’
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.
