Who Cares for America's Babies?

By Janis Prince Inniss

As a faculty member at a large university (that is, I have a good job with health benefits), if I adopt or give birth to a baby, I am entitled to about three months (twelve weeks to be exact) of leave. That means that if I worked right up to the time I give birth, I would return to work when my baby is three months old. 

Today, returning to work a few months after having a baby is not at all unusual. Have a look at Figure 1 below. I would be like many first time mothers of infants: more of whom return to work than do not. Over the last several decades, increasing numbers of women return to work after giving birth, and they do so sooner and sooner after giving birth. Of the 1961-1965 cohort of first-time mothers who worked during their pregnancy, only seventeen percent went back to work when their babies were three months old. In fact, at that time, only a quarter of mothers went back to work when their babies were twelve months old. The trend of mothers returning to work accelerated in the early 1980s when about half of all mothers with babies over three months old had returned to work. Beginning in the late 1990s, between 60 and 80 percent of women who worked during pregnancy returned to work three to twelve months after having their first babies. What do you think explains such a change in women’s participation in the labor force after giving birth? 

Figure 1. Percent of Women Working at Monthly Intervals After First Birth by Year of First Birth 1961-1965 to 2000-2002

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Report, P70-113.

Across the world, countries handle parental leave quite differently. The United States and Australia are the only two industrialized countries in the world without paid maternity leave, although Australia offers 52 weeks of unpaid leave to all working women, in comparison to the twelve weeks eligible women get in the U.S. In the United Kingdom, women are entitled to 52 weeks of maternity leave, 39 of which may be paid! This is true regardless of how long they have been employed. Women in Canada look forward to 17-18 weeks of maternity leave with at least 55 percent of their salary, while parents in Sweden can share 16 months of parental leave at 80 percent pay. 

I should point out that the three months I could spend with my baby would be unpaid! I would have to use some or all of my accrued sick or vacation time to remain in a paid status for some or all of that time, and of course if I had amassed more leave, I could use that to stay home longer. I am guaranteed these three months of leave every 12 months as a result of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), passed in 1993. FMLA was passed to allow American workers job security when they have to attend to family and medical care needs. Once they meet the FMLA criteria, employers cannot deny FMLA leave nor can its use be a reason for termination.

My husband is also eligible for FMLA leave since it is available for both men and women. This posting focuses mostly on women because as discussed in a previous post, women are still the ones who do more child care than men. I was surprised to learn that FMLA does not apply to all American workers, however. I learned about this when a relative told me that because she worked at a small firm, she would get no maternity leave. FMLA does not apply to employers of fewer than 50 employees! With little vacation or sick leave available, my relative returned to work when her daughter was a few weeks old, leaving her baby with a sitter. 

How many children are being cared for by people other than their parents in the U.S.? Table 1 shows that the majority of children in child care are in centers. This is true even for infants and toddlers, of whom 53 percent and 60 percent respectively, are in centers.

Table 1. Average Monthly Percentage of Children in Child Care by Age Category

  and Type of Care (Federal Fiscal Year 2006)

Age Group	Child's Home	Family Home	Group Home	Center	Total
Infants (0 to <1 yr)	7%	35%	5%	53%	100%
Toddlers (1 yr to <3 yrs)	6%	29%	6%	60%	100%
Preschool (3 yrs to <6 yrs)	5%	24%	4%	66%	100%
School Age (6 yrs to <13 yrs)	11%	34%	4%	50%	100%
13 years and older	21%	48%	3%	28%	100%
All Ages	7%	30%	5%	58%	100%

Source: U.S Dept of Health and Human Services

The implications of mothers of infants returning to work early are many, and are not only personal. Clearly, family economics is a major factor, as is work productivity. But beyond that, think about an issue like breastfeeding that may seem highly personal. In the U.S. there are no federal workplace protections for breastfeeding women, while in other countries there are. Breastfeeding is easier for mothers at home with their babies and has many advantages for mother and baby, including reducing infant mortality; the health benefits or costs associated with breastfeeding impact more than any individual family. Can you think of some ways that illness affects society?

As a contrast to U.S. policies, I have briefly described a few models of how motherhood and paid work are combined from different countries. Thinking of these, whose responsibility do you think it is to help women combine motherhood and paid work? Is it a personal responsibility? That of society? One for employers to tackle? At what point does a problem faced by millions move from an individual problem to a societal one?

Comments

[Shawn Carlos Royal]

What's up, JPI???!!! A colleague forwarded this blog to me to check out and, BAM!, you're on it. I've been trying to track you down for more than a minute now. Hit me back when you can:

[email protected]

Carlos

[Mary]

Here in Kenya mothers are given three months maternity leave but some private firms do not follow that at all. You can even report back to work after one month.