Persuasive Essay On Maternity Leave

The United States is far behind when it comes to maternity leave, and while women are granted up to twelve weeks of maternity leave, some women are denied access to it. The United States has the FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993), which states that women are eligible for unpaid maternity leave for six to twelve weeks if employees work in a firm of 50 or more employees, work with the same business for 12 months and have worked for at least 1,250 hours over those 12 months. There is a huge debate about whether maternity leave should be extended and be paid, as the United States is the only industrialized country that does not give women paid maternity leave. Extending maternity leave to 40 weeks paid in America has more benefits than …show more content…
An increase of maternity leave has been proven to help infants and their overall health: “The authors were able to attribute a twenty percent dip in infant deaths to a 10-week extension in paid leave” (Lerner 1). Once maternity leave was extended, it became evident that it was necessary to keep up with infant health. It is obvious that, by extending maternity leave length, the infants born benefit dramatically, most likely due to the mother and child growing a deeper bond as they spend more time together. Not only that, but returning too early to work harms mental health for the babies: “Mothers’ return to work in the first year postpartum had detrimental effects on childhood cognitive development, particularly for return to work in the first three months postpartum” (“Parental Leave” 3). The impacts on the cognitive development for the babies involved allows enough concern to increase the amount of days given to women for maternity leave, especially because many women go back to their work within a couple of weeks after giving birth. It is very crucial for infants to have more time to spend with their mother to improve their