Maternity leave rant

I read this article recently. You can read it yourself here, or to summarize Vodafone is changing the way they do maternity leave. They're offering 16 weeks of paid maternity leave as opposed to the 12 weeks (which don't have to be paid mind you) that the United States has deemed fit for maternity leave. And on top of that they are offering that for 6 months after the mother returns to work she can work part time (30 hours a week) and still get paid her full time wages. This is amazing. I'm so impressed with this company. The United States is leaps and bounds and miles behind almost every single other country when it comes to maternity leave. Did you know that? In the U.S. they don't have to pay your maternity leave. All it really does is hold your position or a similar position for you upon your return after 12 short weeks. Other countries offer time like in Australia it's 14 weeks paid and up to 38 weeks unpaid. And in Sweden they pay 80% of wages for 420 days!

I have a lot of feelings about maternity leave for a few reasons the first being I had to fight to even get my 12 weeks. My former employer only wanted to give me 6 weeks. (Honestly I 100% believe that the real reason I'm out of work now is because I fought for the time with my children but that's a different story). If I'd had a few more weeks or the ability to work part time for even a few months after my return I think that could've changed the way things happened as well. I wouldn't have been exhausted from dealing with a sick baby at home, and working full time. I would've felt a little better about the start my baby was getting and less frustrated and feeling way under valued. When my work told me they were originally only going to give me 6 weeks, it started as well too bad that's how we do it. But after talking to a lawyer and my doctor I decided to push harder to get the 12 weeks. The way I was treated after that made me feel pretty little and unimportant all because I fought for my family. Not that I'd felt all that important with the company before that. They're really terrible at training and communicating, but I digress. I feel like the US needs to start looking at these children who are our future and how their lives are starting out.