'I’m Not Lazy After Childbirth’; My
Body Needs to Rejuvenate.
For many people, raising a family is one of their top-most priorities. In many cases, it takes two people – a man and woman to raise a family, yet women are most vulnerable in the process. They are sometimes granted maternity leave without pay and in extreme cases, risk losing their jobs after getting pregnant or giving birth. Pregnant and nursing mothers require special attention, but it seems that is only gotten at home and not from employers as it is supposed to be.
Many
people have mistaken the stay-home period of some new mothers for laziness, but
this is not the case. Imagine a 4.5 kg baby being pulled out of a body that has
been carrying this same baby for nine months. You do not want to imagine the
hormonal changes, the stress, and even the fears associated with the whole
process. It is only understandable that women are given some time off work to
rest while taking care of their newly delivered babies. This period is normally
referred to as maternal leave.
Maternal
leave is “a period of absence from work granted to a mother before and after childbirth.”
This is different from the annual leave enjoyed by all employees. Maternal
leave is to enable the new mum some time to ‘heal’ before resuming work. This leave is widely understood to be central
in retaining women in the workforce, as well as avoiding the problems of a
declining population (Trauger, 2019). While some are lucky to enjoy maternity
leave with pay, unfortunately, other mothers must forfeit their salaries during
their maternity leave.
According
to F. J. Dy-Hammar, Chief, ILO Conditions of Work Branch, "in all parts of
the world, working women who become pregnant are faced with the threat of job
loss, suspended earnings, and increased health risks due to inadequate
safeguards for their employment." This is a worrying situation as
Psychologists have established that maternal leave with pay prevents depression
and influences the well-being of both mother and the new baby.
Maternity
leave varies from country to country and even differs depending on one’s place
of work. The leave days usually range between 12 weeks to a year and a half. According
to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the countries that offer the
most paid maternity leave by law include Czech Republic – 28 weeks; Hungary –
24 weeks; Italy – 5 months; Canada – 17 weeks; Spain and Romania – 16 weeks
each. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden offer broad paid leave which may be taken by
either parent, although a greater percentage is reserved for the mother. Why is
it difficult for other nations to implement a similar thing for pregnant and
nursing mothers?
In
many societies around the world, cultures are changing, and women are also taking
care of the family just like men do. We are not oblivious of the fact that financially
stable women make a happy home. Hence, in current times where both men and
women strive to cater for their families, maternity leave with pay must be part
of employers’ policies. This is where I
agree with Moser’s article about third world policy to women in development,
where equity was an approach to help women in development by reforming some
policies that do not favor women.
For
these reasons, laws must be enacted at country levels to pay attention to the
needs of pregnant and nursing mothers and protect them from losing their jobs
or being granted maternity leave without pay. If not for anything at all, let’s
not forget that they didn’t sign up to be women in the first place. They as
well did not subscribe to be the carriers of unborn children. Nature made it
that way and the only thing we can do to support is to make the journey to
recovery a less stressful one. Maternity leave with pay should not be a
privilege, but a right!
Reference
International Labor Organization.
(1998). More than 120 Nations Provide Paid Maternity Leave. https://www.ilo.org/global/abouttheilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_008009/lang--en/index.htm. [Accessed 10th October 2020].
Mawuena, O. (2019). Maternity Leave in Ghana. Retrieved
from https://thebestofafrica.org/content/maternity-leave-in-ghana-6monthsmaternityleave. [Accessed 10th October 2020].
Trauger, A., & Fluri, J. L. (2019). Engendering development:
capitalism and inequality in the global economy. Routledge.
Great topic Aishat. I think that the maternal leave is not seen as a process to heal the mothers for the government and companies; otherwise, it is seen as a period to take care of the baby and feed him/her only. Moreover, these women are not getting rest of their home chores (unofficial work); they are still cleaning, cooking, taking care of their other children, among others. The maternity leave with pay should be a law drawn by the state, and everyone should implement it. If the decision is left for the employer, then they would cut the salary, and as you mentioned, maybe fire her from work, as this is not profitable for them. In Palestine, women are granted two paid months for the maternal leave, and they can extend the leave, but the extended depart will be unpaid. Also, when these women are back to work, they have one hour feeding each day. Another point is that maternal leave should be given to males as well. Males are the fathers and part of the pregnancy process, so they should be part of taking care of the child.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that many of the blogs I have read plus this one discuss issues that face women as a result of the Capitalist world.
Aishat,
ReplyDeleteThank you for bringing up such an important issue to forefront! Although I am happy to report that now India has mandatory six months of paid maternity leave for first two kids followed by three months for the next. The Maternity benefit act is applicable to both public and private sector. That said, there is a catch that says women must have worked in an organization for a minimum of 80 days that has at least 10 people employed. Most of the women work in unorganized sectors where 10 people are not employed at the company that hinders them from availing the benefit of maternity leave.
The other negative implication of the law is that companies have reduced hiring of newly married women and women with higher chances of getting married such a engaged women. This reduction is seen to avoid investing in resources for whom the company will have to pay out of their pockets without any benefit to them for 6 months. These practices by the companies result in gender inequality and increase unemployment rate of women.
The other point to highlight is the role of paternity leave for fathers which is 15 days in India and definitely far lesser than women. This not only perpetuates toxic masculinity by demonstrating that taking care of child is women's work but also reinforces the ideology of men as the bread winner of the home and women as home maker and nurturer. There is a need for normalizing paternity leaves so fathers can also play an equally important role in the upbringing of the child.