The U.S. is one of the world’s wealthiest countries, with a net worth of $145 trillion. How much of that wealth is geared toward mothers raising the next generation of Americans? The answer is meek: zero dollars.
One big failing point in the U.S. for moms is the lack of maternal support at a federal level, particularly right after having a baby. Why doesn’t the U.S. government subsidize paid maternal leave for new moms?
This question is on many new mothers’ minds as they feel forced back into the workplace long before their physical and mental health are ready.
The Importance of Parental Leave
Research surrounding the psychological benefits of paid paternal leave clearly illustrates its importance. Yet, these benefits do not align with the U.S.’s current policies.
The top cited benefits of paid parental leave include:
- Giving time for what’s most important: It allows adequate time for the family to bond, the mother to heal, and the father to be more involved.
- Better stress management: Adequate leave is correlated to reduced stress, secondary to better financial stability and job security.
- Better birth outcomes: Less overall stress correlates to fewer pre-term births and lower infant mortality.
- Healthy babies: Maternal leave allows a mother to breastfeed her baby for longer, which correlates to better long-term health and immunity.
The Build Back Better Act Flop
With all the great benefits of parental leave, getting the proper legislation should be straightforward. Yet, many American parents and legislators have fought for parental leave rights for over a century with no such luck. The most recent attempt was the Build Back Better Act under the Biden administration.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Build Better Back Act in November 2021.
Unfortunately, it stalled in the Senate and was eventually dropped due to disagreement on the amount of paid leave. The Act was to allot four weeks of paid and twelve weeks of leave without fear of losing a job or health insurance.
Because of this failure, parental leave continues to fall on the shoulders of individual states and employers. Unfortunately, only 1 in 4 employees in the private sector have access to parental leave benefits.
Thankfully, eleven states have taken their own initiative, with eleven passing paid family and medical leave laws. These include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington State, and Washington, D.C.
Taking Notes From Countries With The Best Maternal Leave
Many countries offer excellent parental leave benefits because they recognize how critical the health of their moms, dad, and babies are in their first years of life.
According to a Business.org report, outside of the U.S., the minimum time for paid leave is six weeks. The average total time off ranges significantly from 6 weeks to over 60 weeks in countries like Sweden and Estonia. Overall, most women could take an average of 18 weeks from work, with at least some of the time being subsidized and a job position guaranteed when they return.
What is federally mandated in the U.S.? Zero weeks of unpaid leave is required. A mother may be eligible for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave if they qualify.
What Do Moms Outside the U.S. Have to Say
It’s unlikely to find a mom complaining about her extended maternal leave benefits in countries prioritizing maternal health and leave. Mothers in countries with extended maternal benefits cannot fathom how mothers in the U.S. do it.
Nadia of This Mom is on Fire gave birth and raised two young children in Canada. She was grateful to take a full year off without worrying about losing her job. When asked if she felt 52 weeks was enough, she answered, “It’s never enough time, but we recognize that it is a lot longer than many other countries.”
Katie Trant of Hey Nutrition Lady has positive reports about her experience raising young children in Sweden while taking 18 months of leave. “I think having the time at home when my kids were small and I was sleep deprived was really important. I can’t imagine having to go back to work when they’re still so tiny!”
As an American, after looking at the cost of birth in the U.S. while pregnant, I decided to give birth to my first daughter in the Czech Republic. There, the standard is to take 1 to 3 years off. Many moms and pediatric nurses I talked to couldn’t comprehend why I’d consider returning to work in the U.S. at three months postpartum. Thankfully, I had a choice and decided to stay home with my baby- but most U.S. mothers don’t have this choice.
Adding Insult to Injury
Just in case the lack of paid maternity leave wasn’t enough, it’s also essential to consider the financial repercussions of having a baby in the U.S. Unlike the other countries listed above; the U.S. does not have universal healthcare in place, adding an additional burden to expecting mothers.
Pregnant women who give birth incur an average bill of $19,000, with around $3,000 being out-of-pocket costs. These numbers can rise exponentially for women without insurance or a plan with a high deductible.
When the cost of birth and postpartum care is stacked on top of unpaid maternity leave and fear of job loss, this is a recipe for stress. Sadly, at a time when a mom should be focusing on healing and bonding, they are worried about their finances. Thus, they are forced away from their babies and back to work so that they can stay afloat and pay enormous medical bills.
Raising Healthy Babies Is an Essential Job
Other countries have recognized the economic importance of raising children in healthy homes. It’s seen as an investment in a resilient future for the next generation. When will the U.S. step up and support their mothers and youngest? With continued legislative pushes, only time will tell.
![Babies who cannot speak may still benefit from a second language. Some education experts say children who learn more than one language before kindergarten have an easier time understanding math concepts, developing thinking skills; using logic; focusing, remembering, and making decisions. And the earlier they start, the better. That's according to a study done by Associate Professor Maria Arredondo at the University of Texas at Austin. Her findings reveal how bilingual infants aged between 6 and 10 months old think and learn differently than those exposed to only one language. Arredondo conducted an experiment by observing over 100 children and administering attention tests on their brains. The babies wore caps with wires, and she ensured they felt comfortable throughout the process by singing songs and sharing toys. The tasks measured how the babies learn, their inhibitory control, memory, and attention, and compared the brain activity of bilinguals and monolinguals. Her results, published in 2022, show that bilingual babies showed different neural activity than monolingual babies. This suggests that early language exposure can alter a baby's brain development and may even impact non-linguistic cognitive functions during the first year of life. Does Early Childhood Bilingualism Benefit The Brain? Bilingualism has been controversial for many years, with some people opposed to it while others champion its benefits. There has been a lot of conflicting information and myths about raising children in bilingual homes, to the extent that some pediatricians advise against exposing children to two languages. In essence, bilingual individuals divide their time between two languages and need to learn twice as many words and phrases as a child who only knows one language. The acquisition and proficiency levels of each language can vary for bilingual learners. Arredondo's study suggests bilingual children can differentiate languages before their first words. This skill helps to strengthen the part of the brain responsible for managing behavior and planning. Bilingual children performed tasks at the same level as monolinguals but used a different part of their brain, even when doing a non-language-related errand. “Bilinguals were engaging their left frontal cortex to a much greater extent than the monolinguals,” Arrendondo explained on the Standford Psychology Podcast. “[The monolinguals] were engaging the right frontal region. Some were engaging the left frontal region but not to the same extent as the bilinguals.” Similarly, Arrendondo noticed from her research that while bilinguals don't necessarily perform tasks better than monolinguals, she saw some surprising benefits. “The bilingual babies [6-10 months] are showing better developmental progression than the monolinguals,” Arrendondo said. “Monolinguals and bilinguals are improving with age, but the bilinguals are showing faster exertion of it.” While at six months, both monolinguals and bilinguals engaged two regions, or “channels” of the brain, but by ten months, the hidden superpower of the bilingual brain became apparent. “The bilinguals were engaging more channels than the monolinguals, I think they engaged eight channels, and the monolinguals engaged four channels,” Arrendondo explained on the podcast. “There is more activity emerging in the bilinguals than the monolinguals, and it correlated with performance; so better performance at six months was also correlated with more activity. It's beginning to show that the bilingual brain is adapting very early on, and it's just showing the neuroplasticity of the bilingual brain.” When she ran correlations with the school-aged children, she would see that this greater activity was related to better language proficiency. Bilinguals Think and Learn Differently Bilingual children have a special ability to mix words from two different languages when speaking. This is known as code-mixing, and it can often appear as though the child is confused; however, research suggests that it may indicate bilinguals' ingenuity. In some language communities, this type of code-mixing is common among adults, and children copy what they hear. Furthermore, code-mixing is also a way for bilinguals to quickly use words from the language they are more familiar with if they cannot easily find the right word in another language. Therefore, it is important to understand that this behavior does not necessarily indicate confusion but rather a common adaptation of speaking two languages. It's worth noting that the bilingual babies who experienced the most significant rise in brain activity in the left frontal region were also those who were exposed to higher levels of “code-switching” between multiple languages at home and were more successful in accomplishing the task according to Arredondo's findings. This suggests that code-switching between languages may help sharpen bilinguals' attention and boost learning. “These papers show that bilinguals' brains and ability in attention are adapting to their environment and improving over time,” Arredondo told The University of Texas at Austin. “It's possible this code-switching environment is making them better at learning, but we don't fully know that from this data. It's all correlational.” Is It Better To Start Learning a Language Earlier? With her findings, Arredondo hopes to encourage more parents to introduce a second language early on. But is earlier really better? “It's a question the field is still trying to understand. There are a lot of research studies showing that executive function abilities will support academic achievement. We know that better executive function will lead to better reading and math abilities,” Arredodo told the podcast. “We do know that when you are a bilingual child, you are more sensitive to the linguistic features of the language, which is related to academic abilities as well.” According to the National Library of Medicine, those who are exposed to two languages from birth tend to have better accents, more extensive vocabularies, and better grammar proficiency than sequential bilinguals. Additionally, they have a higher ability to process language in real time. For example, those who learn Spanish and English from birth are much more adept at using grammatical gender than those who study Spanish as their second language when they get older. Arredondo believes that bilingualism isn't just beneficial for academic performance but developing critical social skills. Research has revealed that being immersed in multiple cultures can increase awareness of others' emotions and social behaviors related to better social abilities. Learning two languages early on could provide children with a valuable tool for navigating social interactions with others. Although language learning abilities decrease as one gets older, it is still possible to learn a new language no matter how old you are. By using the correct methods and committing to it, anyone can become a skilled bilingual, regardless of age.](https://phonemantra.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Bilingual-Infants-Think-and-Learn-Differently.webp)
