Strollerderby : maternity leave

They Say: Work Stress Makes For Skinny Babies

Madeline Holler — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:29:00 GMT

I would hope that the results of the following study won't be a reason to discriminate against women in stressful or physically demanding jobs. Researchers at the University College Dublin and a French health research organization found that a baby is five times more likely to be born premature if the mother worked at a job under two or more of the following conditions:

Long hours

Shifts

Temporary jobs

Physically demanding positions

Just one of those factors made the baby four times more likely to be small or born early.

Just because a mom-to-be works long hours or in shifts wasn't enough to show a statistically significant increased risk, but combined with any of the other factors, it was.

So what does this mean for working moms? Should we go back to the olden days when you would announce you're pregnant and immediately resign? Um, no. But how about, for example, giving this cop desk duty until she returns from her maternity leave? And maybe doing the math that it would cost less in the long run to make these accommodations, considering the extra expense of caring for an increased number of premature and low-weight babies.

From the Telegraph:

Dr Isabelle Niedhammer, one of the co-authors of the study, said: "This study underlines that more attention should be given to women's working conditions during pregnancy, and effort should be intensified towards reducing exposure to physical work demands, shift work, and long working hours for pregnant women.

"Special attention should also be given to pregnant women working on temporary contracts," she added.

Do you think work stress or a physically demanding job affected the size and health of your baby?

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Photo: Telegraph.co.uk

Pregnant Cop Denied Light Duty Sues Department

JeanneSager — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:22:00 GMT

If you're getting pregnant on your own time, is it up to your employer to provide lighter duties during your pregnancy?

In general, I think most of America (especially us mothers) would say "absolutely." But a case in a Long Island court puts a unique twist on the age-old "is pregnancy really a disability" argument between moms and their employers.

The Suffolk County Parks Police do not provide light duty to any officer who is "injured" while off duty (in other words, limited duty is provided only for officers injured on the job). The department says that extends to female officers who get pregnant - it's either work your regular duties or take leave during the pregnancy.They're claiming that means they treat the sexes exactly the same.

But Tara Germain will be in court this week, claiming her civil rights were violated. As a woman, getting pregnant, she could not apply for any form of disability payments like her male counterparts, leaving her to face her pregnancy with no income coming in unless she decided to remain on full duty with the department.

Germain's lawyers contend that the grueling duties required by her job were not appropriate for a pregnant woman, and although I'm not a police officer, I can see how running down a perp is not easily done with an eight-months-along belly. I worked up until the evening before I was induced - more than a week after my due date - and I can tell you that while being a reporter is different from being a cop, it's another non-desk job which requires a lot of flexibility (try lying on the ground to get a good shot with a camera when you're nine months along) and is hardly cushy. I speak from that experience when I say light duty of some sort is in order for pregnant women.

But I can't totally blame the police department here. I blame the federal government. What do businesses do in a country where they have to keep running with the staff they have, but the government is doing nothing to provide their employees relief? The fix to problems like Germain's doesn't seem to be in suing the employers but in making the family medical leave act stronger - providing PAID leave for mothers, providing a funding source other than disability insurance (which not every employer carries) because pregnancy is not a disability. Employers need to play a role too; jobs should be protected (which they currently are - to a point) and pregnancy should be respected as something women do not to anger their employer but to enhance the world in general.

What do you think Babble readers? In the Germain case, who is in the right?

Image: NJ Blog

Planned Change to UK Maternity Leave Give More Time to Fathers

Shannon LC Cate — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:30:00 GMT

U.S. moms looking at 6 weeks of unpaid maternity leave will have to pinch themselves when they read about the U.K.'s proposed changes to their current 9-month, partly paid government guaranteed maternity leave. After complaints that such a long maternity leave shortchanges fathers and potentially makes women of childbearing age less appealing to employers, while the small percentage of pay made it difficult for families with low incomes to take the leave, some changes have been proposed.

The new plan would give mothers 28 weeks of leave at 90% of their pay before the leave. It would retain the current 2-week leave for fathers, but add another 4 months, also at 90% pay. Then another 4 months of parental leave would be available for either parent to take up to the child's fifth birthday.

Many employers offer more than the government-mandated leave options as well.

The plan is expected to cost about 5.3 billion pounds or $7.5 billion. To give you a sense of how that fits into the U.S. budget, the first economic industry bailout last fall was over $700 billion.

The plan, while not pleasing everyone in the UK--from those who don't want a penny of their tax money to go to anyone with kids (huh?) to those who think mothers should get a round 12-months to encourage that amount of full-time breast feeding--and to give employees filling in for someone's leave time to build a better resume--it still sounds like a fantasy world to most US American parents.

My only suggestion is to take gender out of the equation entirely. Children of single parents will get less parent time if leave is assigned by gender. And rather than 90% of someone's paycheck, why not a single pay amount for all families taking leave? Maintaining a tie to someone's current pay is more likely to maintain the current discrepancy between the poor and the middle class, as to who takes advantage of available leave.

What are the conditions of your parental leave if applicable? How would you feel about a plan more in line with European plans (most of which are even more generous than the U.K.'s.)?

image: guardian.co.uk

Soldier Gives Birth At Army Barracks

Brett Singer — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:00:00 GMT

A 20-year-old British private gave birth the other day. Ho-hum, right? But listen to this:

- She delivered the baby herself.
- She hid the child for "days" (it doesn't say how many) before anyone found out she had, you know, given birth.
- She hid the pregnancy from her fellow soldiers. Officers asked if she was pregnant but she said no. "She continued to take part in exercises and had been to the gym wearing loose clothes." No one seems to know why she didn't want to admit it.

This bit about how much maternity leave British soldiers get is interesting: "Female military personnel are entitled to 52 weeks' maternity leave, 39 of them paid, and they are not considered for deployment within six months of giving birth, unless they volunteer. "

A year of maternity leave, 39 paid weeks -- pretty good. Being shipped overseas six months after giving birth? Wow. I guess if that's what you do, and duty calls, then you go. Sounds like a bummer though.

This is sort of the opposite of the American soldier who reported for duty with kids in tow after being stop-lossed. I understand her more than I do the British woman. Why hide a baby like that? Frankly, HOW do you hide a baby in an army barracks? And delivering your own kid? Ouch. Kind of disputes the notion that women are "too weak" for combat. Anyone who can deliver their own baby, I want on my side.

Source: Telegraph

Image: Wikipedia

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Will M.I.A Perform at Sunday's Oscars? After Giving Birth Last Week?

SunnyChanel — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 01:26:00 GMT

After giving birth to a baby, it’s a given that one will take some well deserved time off. The big question is, will songstress M.I.A. do just that? M.I.A. gave birth to her son last Wednesday just days after performing very pregnant and on her due date at the Grammy’s. And apparently there is no rest for the weary and the popular, she is scheduled to perform at this Sunday’s Oscars.

M.I.A collaborated with the Indian composer AR Rahman on a song nominated for best original song on the soundtrack for Slumdog Millionaire. On M.I.A. performing Rahman said,"She wants to. In fact, she said she'll do it with a hologram. She has all these ideas," he stated in an interview with the BBC. He continued to say, "I don't know how it's going to be possible, though. Having a baby is such an important thing in your life – more important than winning an Oscar." The Oscar producers are very eager to have M.I.A. perform at the award show saying “She's eager to perform... we've said things like 'We're willing to have her enter on a large bed'. We'll make it as easy for her as we can.” Now that I’d like to see. But maybe she’ll just stay home with her newborn son, that’s a pretty sweet prize.

If you were M.I.A. would you perform or stay home?

French Politician at Work 5 Days After C-Section

Miriam Axel-Lute — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:31:00 GMT

Rachida Dati, French justice minister, attended a cabinet meeting last week five days after giving birth by c-section. It might not be giving a speech while leaking amniotic fluid, but the move sparked a lot of outrage across France, with a majority of the public saying it was "too soon" and she should have used more of the four months (six weeks before, ten after. swoon.) she had coming to her.

In fact, another minister has proposed a measure in response to explicitly state that expected practice is that a deputy will step in for a politician on maternity leave to increase the number of people in those kind of jobs who actually take their leave.

I'm of mixed minds on the whole reaction. Of course I would dearly love to be in a country where we are arguing over whether someone should take maternity leave that we assume is available to us, especially after the heart-wrenching stories people put in the comments to my last post on maternity leave. And the additional proposal sounds dandy.

But then we get to the whole mommy police thing. Sure, I personally cringe at the thought of anyone popping off to a meeting five days after either giving birth or having major abdominal surgery, let alone both. But is it the end of the world? Is one woman making that choice really going to constitute dangerous pressure on other women to do the same, as French women's groups are suggesting? I guess I can see it might make some employers feel more free to push for short use of leave, but I'm still inclined toward the "Lay off!" side of this one. It's just not going to work the same for everyone.

And, of course, it needs to be said that fathers don't get the same kind of treatment.

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They Say: Planning to Work Until the First Contraction? Plan for Surgery.

Miriam Axel-Lute — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Women who worked up until their due date had four times the rate of c-sections as women who started their maternity leave at 35 weeks, a new study from UC Berkeley has found.

Now, I'm not sure how you can control for self-selection in that kind of study. I imagine that women starting their maternity leave early are both more likely to be placing a priority on their birth experience and better off financially, each of which could affect their outcomes. (I'm assuming they excluded people with scheduled c-sections from the study.)

On the other hand, the results were is four times as likely, not a titchy 10 to 15 percent or something. That, as Dr. Seuss might say, is a whopping number, and it makes me inclined to think there really is something going on here.

It's not really hard to imagine what either: On the one hand, there's the stress of trying to do your job with an open-ended question of whether you might have to leave at a moment's notice, trying to have things ready and yet still work, with bosses and people who are going to step into your shoes watching you anxiously. And other hand, there's the stress of trying to decide when/if you have to leave when contractions start, whether you're up for driving yourself home, when to call the family, and then changing gears in an instant from worker to woman-in-labor. Hardly optimal conditions.

I was lucky: Since I was leaving my job instead of taking maternity leave, it was easier for me to choose to set my last day at 35 weeks. And I have to say, since my daughter came early (37 weeks and 2 days), I'm extremely glad I did. Even though you never exactly feel prepared, having tied up loose ends, cleared out my desk and said my goodbyes and then taking those two weeks free of deadline pressure and office details to sleep/nest/prepare felt wonderful. It may be the closest thing to taking a complete vacation without traveling I've ever done. Can I prove that that helped with my fairly uncomplicated birth? Of course not, but I wouldn't be surprised.

I know how much of a luxury that sounds like to so many people. I sure as hell couldn't blithely skip five (or even two) weeks of work now. In general, it's hard enough to get maternity or paternity leave at all, and the UC Berkeley researchers, while advocating strongly that maternity leave start earlier, note that people who choose to work up to their due date (or up to their labor as the case often is) are usually doing so because they can't afford maternity leave after the birth otherwise, and clearly that trumps.

I guess for now we can add the health advantages they've identified to the list of casualties of our work-over-family culture.

Image from Take Back Your Time.

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No Good Choices in Child Care Debate

Amy Kuras — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:28:00 GMT

It’s a familiar paradox to every parent who works outside the home – childcare costs so much that sometimes it just makes more sense to stay home, even if that’s not what you would really prefer to do –and that’s if you can find a spot in a halfway decent center.

So I thought this brief blog post from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Working Dad, Paul Nyhan, to be interesting. He stated that on average, child care center directors – that is, the people running the show – make 35 percent less than kindergarten teachers. You know the people who have the most direct contact with the kids make much less. And 17 percent of all family-owed child care centers have closed in the last five years.

Something like half of all kids are regularly in child care, he states – although I don’t know if that number includes just kids who are in full time daycare or those who go to Grandma’s every afternoon or preschool two mornings a week.

He points out a fundamental disconnect between supply and demand – that child care workers often don’t make a decent wage, but parents struggle to pay for it. I wonder why that is, although I have a few theories.

One is that child care has traditionally been women’s work, and we generally undervalue anything traditionally done by women, like teaching and clerical work and so on.

And I think it’s also a fundamental discomfort in this county with the idea of women’s economic power. There’s a strong cultural bias against middle class women who work outside the home if they have young children, but the feds mandate only a paltry three months unpaid maternity leave. Other countries offer one year, paid, minimum, so mothers of babies don’t have to go back to work right about the time they are beginning to feel somewhat good at the baby care gig.

All I know is, I envy my friends who have on site child care at their jobs, or free and loving grandma care. Because for the rest of us, the choices suck.

Canada Nixes Parents' Request for Dual Leave At Twins Birth

JeanneSager — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:02:00 GMT

Some say twice the kids means twice the works. That's what Christian Martin and Paula Critchley are expecting anyway . . . along with twins, due to be delivered in May. To get ready, the couple both put in for the thirty-five weeks of leave afforded Canadian parents after a baby is born. They've been denied.

Well, one has anyway. The Canadian government has said its rules for twins (and ostensibly any other multiple birth) are the same as those for a single birth: thirty-five weeks of paid leave to be split between the two parents. One parent can take the full thirty-five weeks, or each can take leave periods that - when added together - are equal to that two-hundred forty-five-day allotment. According to research by Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail, the country's Employment Insurance Act spells out that one person cannot apply for additional benefits for multiple births. But, they say, it does not "specifically address multiple claimants making claims for multiple births." In other words - two parents, two paychecks, right?

Martin says he's not looking to make money off of the government because his wife is carrying two babies. But with twice the work at home, he says it's only right that two parents be there to handle the burden. That means twice the work not being done outside the home - or twice the income not coming in the doors. And with twice the number of mouths to feed . . . well, you do the math.

It's a sticky wicket. I have no doubt that multiples ARE harder than most single births. But what about premie single births that require both parents to take extensive amounts of time off to spend in the NICU? What about parents who have other children already at home and find their new baby exhausting? Or the single mom of the multiple children - however she ended up single and pregnant - should she get that extra money to hire someone to help? What about the parents of a single child who suffers from one of hundreds of disorders that require more than the usual round the clock care of the average newborn? What about the mother of a single child who is suffering from postpartum depression so severe she doesn't even want to see her baby, nonetheless care for him? Should they get extra pay for the extra parent?

Either way, I confess I'm jealous. Nothing like the U.S. where you get six weeks of "disability" payments for a vaginal birth that come nowhere near your regular salary and one of which is taken away (for some reason I could not ever get clear with my company's insurer).

Image: Twinsurance

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Was Trig Palin drugged?

Brett Singer — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:30:00 GMT

This comes from a reader, who asked what I think is an interesting question that I haven't heard anyone else ask: how exactly is the Palin family getting Trig to stay so calm while in the public eye?

I've forgotten (or blocked out) some of what my kids were like at that age. I can say, though, that I can't imagine either of them being that calm in the face of so much clamor and activity.

One explanation is that the kid is, well, drugged. Now, I don't mean Quaaludes, just a little Benadryl or Tylenol. I freely admit that I've done the same thing, although not recently and only in certain situations, like on an airplane. The idea of doping the kids wouldn't have occurred to be except that our pediatrician suggested it. So this isn't a judgment thing, unless you want it to be.

Another possibility is that baby Trig (short for Trigonometry?) is just a mellow baby. They do exist, although in my experience they are almost as rare as unicorns. There are babies that work in television, or even theater: I saw one in a play who, much to my amazement, managed to stay quiet during a very long and loud scene.

So it's possible that the kid is just naturally low-key. But wow, talk about good behavior.

Me, I would've maybe not put the kid on camera quite so much, but that's a separate issue. (Some say that Trig "has definitely become a central prop in [the McCain] campaign," which unfortunately seems to be true.)

For those of you who currently have children that age, or who haven't erased that period of time from their memory banks, how do you think your little one would have withstood the tumult of a political convention?

image: bagnewsnotes

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Palin family online - real or fake?

Brett Singer — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:45:00 GMT

If the Internet is to be believed, John McCain has chosen a running mate whose family life is just thisclose to being a full season of The Jerry Springer Show. However, as we all know, not everything you read (online or in print) is true.

So in the interest of being fair and balanced (ahem), we present to you a list of what we've found out regarding the veracity of the various blogs, photos and assorted Palin hoo-ha.

Levi Johnston's blog: FAKE
This is clearly fake, but amusing (well, slightly). The tone is pretty close to what was on Levi's now gone MySpace page.

Willow Palin's blog: Unknown
This one could be real but seems very fake to me. I haven't seen any official debunking of it but I can't imagine the Republicans would allow anyone in the Palin family unfettered blogging rights at this point.

Bristol Palin party pics: Unknown

If I had to guess, I would say that these are real. These shots are more than a little bit creepy since Bristol is 17, and may have been younger when these photos were taken. However, if they are real, she posted 'em. I really hope MySpace and the rest have gone the way of other dot-bombs by the time my kids are old enough to care about them. If not, I think I'm going to have a little chat about not posting any and all photos online for the world to ogle at.

Sarah Palin nude shots: FAKE
Let's go one by one:

SO fake. But funny.

The Naked Shot
Click here to see it (not safe for work). Nerve says this looks like Julia Louis Dreyfus, and after seeing the photo they link to, I kind of agree. HOWEVER, Snopes (a good source for all internet fakery) says even that one is a phony. Damn you, Photoshop!

This shot of Palin in a mini-skirt isn't too racy, although someone did Photoshop it onto a Playboy cover.

Alas, Snopes says that one is fake as well. They don't offer as much evidence of said fakery as they do for the other pics; all they have is a shot of Palin with the same facial expression, hairdo, etc. I’m not saying it's real, just saying the evidence isn't as compelling. It's probably fake.

Less widely circulated is this shot from GrizzlyBay.org of Governor Palin with, um, Vikings:

That one is real. I think.

So now y'all know who to vote for, right? What? This doesn't matter at all? Oh…

Images/Sources: Nerve, GrizzlyBay, Snopes, Facebook, et al.

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McCain, Palin oppose teen pregnancy aid and sex education

Brett Singer — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:20:00 GMT

Ah, running for President. Everything you've ever done is fair game. But hey, stay out of their personal lives! But hang on – this is about their political views? Oh. Um. OK.

"Republican John McCain, whose running mate disclosed that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, has opposed proposals to spend federal money on teen-pregnancy prevention programs and voted to require poor teen mothers to stay in school or lose their benefits."

Palin herself wrote in a questionnaire during her gubernatorial campaign in 2006, "The explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support." (Not sure what she means by "explicit sex-ed" -- plaster genitalia are out, but bananas are cool? Use "va-jay-jay" and "hey-nonner-nonner" instead of the word "vagina"?)

Some have said this is a "karma's a bitch" situation, but that seems unfair to me. Stuff happens, regardless of your personal beliefs. At best, it's ironic (don'tcha think? Sorry, couldn't resist). One good result of this particular scrutiny is that it shines a spotlight on McCain's voting record, and also on statements made by Palin. That sort of information is what people should be basing their voting decisions on, not whether or not Ms. Palin would be better off at home making brownies, rather than running for veep.

source: Yahoo News

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Sarah Palin, Sportscaster

Brett Singer — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Before she entered politics, way back in 1988, Sarah Palin was known as Sarah Heath. She was, as you may have heard, a sports anchor for KTUU-TV in Anchorage, Alaska. Video was bound to surface eventually; I'm actually surprised it took this long.

It's not all that remarkable. She reads sports scores, makes less than snappy patter with an anchor that Deadspin describes as, "a weird amalgam of Ron Burgundy and Carl Monday," and she has big ol' 80's hair. There's also that voice, which I think is verrry close to Frances McDormand's in 'Fargo.'

Before I'm accused of "bashing" her, I'm not. That said, I think when the McCain campaign (McCampaign? Hmm...) tells us that she was a "journalist," that's pushing it a little bit.

Enjoy.

Source: Deadspin

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Political Nanny: Sarah Palin is McCain's VP Pick!

Madeline Holler — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:37:00 GMT

It's all but official as lots and lots of arrows are pointing toward Alaska's popular, recently post-partum governor, Sarah Palin, as McCain's top pick for VP.

We've covered her here at Babble. She gave birth to her fifth child some months ago, a little boy, Trig Paxon Van Palin (Palin rhymes with Halen, as in "Van Halen"). Trig has Down syndrome.

Here are some other preliminary deets (from Atlantic Monthly):

44 years old. .... Five children. .... Dynamic personality. .... Elected in 2006 as a reformer. Opposed Don Young's re-election bid. ..... Anti-same sex marriage but supports other gay rights. .... She's a lifelong member of the National Rifle Association. .... Pro life.. Signed into law a very aggressive ethics reform package. ...... Good symbolism: she sold the former governor's state jet right after entering office. She's at the forefront of the oil drilling debate...very popular among all Alaskans. ......She faces a state probe into whether she tried to get a former brother in law fired from his law enforcement job.. .... Born in Idaho...grew up in Alaska... It would be hard for Sen. Joe Biden to bully her in a debate. ....

She's very unknown (which means that the curiosity quotient will be huge) and has scant national security experience. ... But Obama can't really make that argument, can he? (Maybe third party groups can...)

She's ardently anti-abortion and also very interested in drilling for oil in her state's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

What do you think? Pretty great to see a woman on the ticket, huh? Think she'll scoop up all the PUMAs from Barack Obama?

Alaskan Governor Preggo Too!

Photo: Time.com

The Unkindest Cut: Paid Time Off Gets the Ax

Madeline Holler — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:04:00 GMT

Just when we started making progress on things like paid maternity leave (we were making progress on that, right?), the economy goes in the shitter. Now, companies are having to cut back on family-friendly benefits like paid time off for having a baby/adopting a baby/raising a baby.

Sucky!

In fact leaves and pay for time off for both parents are at lower levels than they were a decade ago.

From WSJonline:

Only 16% of employers offer full pay for childbirth leave, down from 27% in 1998, based on a nationally representative sample of 1,100 employers by the nonprofit Families and Work Institute. The average maximum length of job-guaranteed leaves for new mothers shrank too, to 15.2 weeks from 16.1 weeks a decade ago; leave for dads fell to 12.6 weeks from 13.1.

It's not that The Man is evil (I guess). Instead, it's the growing cost of disability insurance, which is what covers most maternity leave costs in the U.S. So moms are taking much, much less time off after baby. Parents are also having to take on more debt, or plan very carefully (and hope for no glitches) when deciding whether and when to have a baby.

Photo: WSJonline.com

Lawyer Fired for Having a Miscarriage

Madeline Holler — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:31:00 GMT

What's worse than having a miscarriage? Getting fired for it!

Which is exactly what happened to this attorney at the San Francisco law firm Paul Hastings. Here are the opening lines of her depature email (which she won't get sued for writing since she passed up three months severance pay in order to not have to agree to stay quiet).

The circumstances surrounding my departure from Paul Hastings have been deeply disappointing. It is one thing to ignore an email sent as a colleague is waiting to have her uterus scraped after a miscarriage, but it is wholly another level of heartlessness to lay her off six days after that. [Partner X] is the only one who expressed any sympathy after my miscarriage, and I am grateful to him for that.

Now, it wasn't the miscarriage that got her fired, she argues. Rather the fact that she might try to get pregnant again. Over at Jezebel, they're saying this happens all the time at law firms and other corporations.

So, if this attorney was fired because she might have kids some day -- that's a total rip-off, of course. Which only goes to show you, women still need to be quiet about pregnancy and motherhood at work. Oh, and women should never, ever, ever cry about their personal life at the office, or send emails about miscarriages, as cold and callous as that sounds.

What do you think? Has this happened to you?

Photo: targetwoman.com

Governor Populates Alaska (By One More)

Madeline Holler — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:26:00 GMT

OK, that was fast. We just found out about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's pregnancy, and now she's already given birth!

About a month before her due date -- and while at a governors convention in Texas -- she went into labor. She headed right back to Alaska (!!!) and gave birth to a 6 pound 2 ounce little boy, Trig Paxson Van Palin. (Are we liking that name? Please comment.) Incidentally, Palin rhymes with Halen, as in Van Halen.

About the name from AP:

The name Trig is a Norse word meaning "true" and "brave victory," Leighow said. Paxson is an area of Alaska that both Palin and her husband, Todd, feel is "one of the most beautiful spots in Alaska," she added.

Here's the rundown of her other kids (and their names. "Trig" isn't a huge depature for the Palins.): a son, Track, 18, and three daughters, Bristol, 17, Willow, 13 and Piper, 7.

Gov. Palin is 44 years old and Trig is her fifth child. In her statement to the public, she said that Trig, while healthy and doing well, will have special needs.

From AP:

"We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives."

Palin returned to work the day after giving birth to her youngest daughter, and she expects to be signing bills soon again.

Alaskan Governor Preggo Too!

Madeline Holler — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:33:00 GMT

While looking into the much talked about pregnancy of Spain's newly appointed Minister of Defense, I came across this news (how did we miss it?!!!). Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin, sometimes described as quite a MILF, is also pregnant ... really pregnant ... like more than eight months pregnant. She's due in mid-May.

This will be the fifth child for the popular 44-year-old Republican and her husband, on leave from his job at BP.

She said she doesn't think having a baby will get in the way of her job.

From FOX News:

She said her work as Wasilla mayor had only a brief interruption when she had her youngest daughter, Piper, six years ago.

"I had Piper on a Monday and I was back to work on a Tuesday," Palin said. "I even brought her to work with me."
Palin will be the second governor in American history to give birth while leading her state. Former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift was the first, giving birth to twins in 2001.

Photo: juneauempire.com

Spain's Preggo Defense Minister

Madeline Holler — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:01:00 GMT

Do you ever get the feeling that the whole world is leaving the U.S. behind? Oh, only everyday? Good, then I'm not alone.

Here's what's got me all in a knot today: Spain's Minister of Defense is seven months pregant -- and, in general, that's pretty OK with the country (if not somewhat surprising).

Carmen Chacon, 37 (God, I know ... what am I doing with my life?), was recently appointed defense minister, adding her to socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's cabinet, which, in his second term, now includes more women than men.

Sure, some in the conservative military are like, "what the hell? A pregnant woman?!!!" Others see her as a symbol not only of the Socialist Party's ideal of gender equality but also of a more humanitarian armed forces. True, Chacon lacks military training. But she's a leader in a country where half the citizens want to pull out of Afghanistan and put the military to work on humanitarian missions.

Here are a few other mind-boggling (for this weary American) changes the prime minister has made:

In his first term, he passed a sweeping law against domestic violence, legalized gay marriage, eased divorce laws, and required political parties to practice gender parity. He also appointed equal numbers of men and women to cabinet positions, and named María Teresa Fernández de la Vega as his deputy prime minister.

Now the big question is whether Chacon will take the full 16 weeks (here's the math: FOUR MONTHS) of maternity paid (!!!!) leave guaranteed her by national law. Most think it's doubtful, but that her situation now highlights the need to up paternity leave, which is now only (only!) 15 days for men.

Photo: Time.com

How Taxes Stack Up

Amy Kuras — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:04:00 GMT

It's Tax Day, and you are either sweating out your tax forms at the last minute or you’ve already spent your refund and are smugly awaiting your stimulus payment. Or you’re like me, bleary eyed and cranky because you wanted to make sure you had an extra day to deal with problems and thus stayed up incredibly late last night.

Has I been snug in my bed right on time, though, I would still hate paying taxes to our current government and be extra pissy today because I had to. Especially after looking at this press release from the Council on Contemporary Families at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It lays out what family-friendly benefits US families get for their tax money versus what people in other industrialized nations get for their (admittedly higher) tax dollars. Check it out:

•   In Norway, parental leave allowance is 54 weeks at 80% pay or 44 weeks at 100% to be shared any way the parents wish, although the mother must take three weeks before birth and six weeks immediately after and the father must take five weeks off if they intend to use any leave (yes, must, not "if they have a sympathetic boss and can afford to, maybe"). Adoptive parents are eligible for 51 weeks off at 80% pay or 41 weeks at 100%.

•   In Greece, either parent can use up to 17 months of leave time, and receive an additional hour off per day until the child is 30 months old, or two hours per day for 12 months and one hour per day for the next six months.

•   In Belgium, free early childhood education is available to all children starting at the age of 2 1/2.

We couldn’t even deduct child care.
Sigh.

Pregnancy Discrimination Complaints On the Rise

Kelly Mills — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:31:00 GMT

The Wall Street Journal reports that pregnancy-bias job complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission were up by 14 percent this year, and up by 40 percent from a decade ago. Employers aren't allowed to discriminate against the with child in hiring, firing, and lay-offs--which doesn't mean they can't do all those things to you, it just means they can't treat you worse than men. So essentially you have to prove that the actions were motivated by the fact that you were pregnant, which isn't always easy.

While many women also assume they get maternity leave, the truth is that only a couple states guarantee the leave must be paid. And though some ladies do pursue claims against employers, many opt to drop claims because of the time and hassle entailed. With a pregnancy or newborn, I'm sure you have all kinds of free time to work with attorneys and amass evidence and so on. But ultimately some women are successful, like the HR manager who was laid off as part of a reduction-in-force, only to discover the reduction encompassed only her. And if we can do anything to encourage women to pursue action, we'd damn well better do it, or employers will be able to continue to shut out those that are in a family way.

Maternity Leave and Sick Newborns

Madeline Holler — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:03:00 GMT

Here's the Sophie's Choice of parental leave: use up all your leave time to be with your preemie newborns at the hospital or save it for after they get home?

A federal employee in Washington, D.C., had to make that decision and wound up going back to work two weeks (two weeks!) after giving birth.

Going without pay, which she can under the Family Medical Leave Act, wasn't an option, as it isn't for many families.

The mother's story comes up as an example of how inadequate family leave for federal employees is. This mother had saved up all her sick and vacation days for maternity leave. But when the babies were born early and had to spend time at the hospital, she had to use those days carefully and make the tough choice to return to work two weeks after giving birth. A N.Y. congresswoman is working to get federal employees eight weeks of paid paternity leave.

From the Washingtonpost.com

Too often, federal employees are forced to choose between their paycheck and their new child, said Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), vice chairman of the joint committee, noting that "even the best-prepared workers face difficult choices when children need their care."

We all know the U.S. is painfully behind in terms of family and maternity leave. So how would you have used the days, particularly if going without pay isn't an option?

Badass Coach/Mom Takes Weeks-Old Twins to Tournament

Madeline Holler — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:35:00 GMT

Here's how I know that I lack determination, motivation, a sense of teamwork and the ability to show some hustle. I think this women's basketball coach is crazy -- admirable, but crazy.

Brenda Frese, a coach/mom for the women's basketball team at the University of Maryland, wanted to be there for the final game of the seniors on her team when they play in the ACC women's basketball tournament in North Carolina. But she couldn't stand the idea of being away from her two newborn sons.

Here's her plan: take the two-week-old twin boys on the road with her to the tournament. All of which involves, you know, getting dressed and leaving the house.

She won't be be nursing courtside (though wouldn't that be great!). Her husband and both sets of grandparents are making the trip with her and the team and looking after the little buggers. So, it's not the presence of the boys -- or taking them on a road trip -- that astounds me. It's the fact that she's organized and willing to do anything but nap, watch TV and fine with being at some distance from a bathroom fewer than three weeks post-partum. Oh, and that she'll presumably be jumping up and down and screaming and slapping girls on the butts and giving half-time pep talks. What next -- picking cabbage 13 hours a day?

Seriously, makes me tired and sore just thinking about it.

Good game, coach, good game.

Photo: Washington Post

Family Issues B-I-N-G-O

Madeline Holler — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:57:00 GMT

Tonight's Democratic debates (which won't include candidate Jesus, whose platform is yet to be determined) should be some good, old-fashioned fun. Only two candidates and loads of acrimony.

However, will Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton get the chance to talk about issues? They won't, say the organizers over at Moms Rising, the grassroots organization that works to get family matters at the top of every political leader's agenda. They've even made up a Moms Rising Presidental Debate Bingo cards, a kind of check list for you to verify which, if any, of these issues gets addressed.

The group also encourages everyone to cast a vote for the following question to be asked at tonight's debate:

All developed nations except for the USA provide paid time off for mothers who give birth. As a father living in Spain, I even get 2 paid weeks off when I have a new child born. I believe this reflects a larger problem where we have not reconciled life/work balance in a 2-income-household economy. What would you do as president to begin reconciling our 21st economy with our 20th century approach/options to family care?

Go here to vote.

Maternity Leave from High School

Amy Kuras — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 23:13:00 GMT

Thanks to the Family and Medical Leave Act (brought to us by Husband of Hillary) women can take up to twelve weeks off work after the birth or adoption of a child without losing their jobs. It's not paid, so plenty of people can’t afford to take it, and if you're a freelancer like me you're pretty well screwed unless you have understanding clients.

But what about school? Some school counselors and pregnant teenagers in the Denver school district are lobbying their local Board of Education to institute a policy of four weeks maternity leave after the birth of a baby.

Right now, girls have to be back behind their desks within a day of being discharged from the hospital – so, possibly as little as 36 or so hours after giving birth. Ouch.

Predictably, the idea has drawn controversy, with some people saying giving girls such a vacation from school would become an incentive to get pregnant as a teen. Sure, because four weeks off school is just that attractive.

On the one hand, I think this sounds great – four weeks isn’t a lot and I know I could barely shower and comb my hair two days after giving birth, much less could I have paid attention in Algebra II. And why should they have so much higher standards than employed, adult women?

But four weeks is an awful lot of time to make up in what's likely a 16-week semester, especially when balancing the new demands of motherhood. Maybe requiring them to keep up with work through online classes, or make up the time in summer school, makes more sense.

I don’t know. What I do know is, although teen parenting is not the ideal, doing whatever works to help these girls finish high school and succeed is the right thing to do for them and their children.

Photo: Denver Post