Preemie Leave?
Featured Guest Blogger October 6th, 2008
A dear friend of mine recently had a baby at just 27 weeks in her pregnancy; Olivia was due in October, but was born in July. We are happy to report that she is doing well, and that she should be home by the end of the year. The emotional rollercoaster of having a premature baby was just the beginning of a slew of challenges that my friends are facing now. Preemies bring up issues that I hadn’t thought of before— for example, their daughter will always be a bit older in time than she is in development. When she is one, she will likely not be walking as people might expect from a one-year-old. It makes complete sense, but again, I had never stopped to realize this challenge. Another issue that they faced was what to do about their maternity and paternity leaves, since they had a baby who was going to be in the NICU for over 5 months.
Given that 12% of births are premature (1 in 8 pregnancies), thousands of parents across the country will have to think about these questions: Should we take our leave after the birth of our child, or wait until she is ready to come home? Should we stagger our leaves so that one of us works while our baby is in the NICU, and the other works when she comes home? What do we do if we want to pump breast milk for our baby in the NICU? Will we be forced to leave our jobs due to our extended absence?
Talking through these issues with my friends left me speechless, as I couldn’t imagine having a baby in the NICU while facing financial and career overhauls. So, are workplaces supportive of this unique situation? In some cases yes, and in others, no; it’s up to the employer. In looking into this issue, I have discovered some workplaces that offer “compassionate leave” for such circumstances. Are governments helpful? Again, some are more than others. The EU is allotting additional maternity/paternity leave for premature births, but the United States does not.
We welcome your opinions or knowledge on this matter, as it is not something that the Network has examined yet, but it is an incredibly worthwhile topic.
Hi,
I am currently going thru this very thing, my son was born at 26 weeks gestations and has been in the NICU for 3 months now, My job said if I returned to work before my maternity leave was up (8 weeks) I could not use it later. Also, if i went back to work after the 8 weeks, I could not use the rest of my FMLA. So my doctor signed me out on stress and anxiety leave for 2 months. Now that my time is up, now my son is ready to come home, (on oxygen), and I cant find an sitter, we have no family in the area. I am stuck on how I am to go back to work now, with my son finally coming home with special needs. For the sake of anyone else who would have to go thru this, I think there should be a preemie leave, esp with the rise of premature births and rise of mothers in the workplace…….
My daughter was born at 24 weeks gestation-almost 4 months early, and has spent the past 4 months in the hospital 2 1/2 hours away from home. I developed pre-eclampsia and had no choice but to deliver my baby this early. I I have only been with my employer for a few months, and only got 22 days of leave. Since the end of December, I have spent 2 days in the office so far away from my daughter, then the rest of the week I remotely work from my laptop. I am fortuneate to to be able to work like this through this time, but I only have 2 weeks of vacation time when my little girl comes home in the next couple weeks. I am with her 3 or 4 days a week, and my husband stays with her the other 2 that I have to go back to the office for. I agree that there should be some kind of extension on leave when a preemie baby is born. I have seen posts by people that say that you chose to get pregnant, and should have planned accordingly-which I did. I had my leave all figured out..for a full term pregnancy. Having a baby in the NICU, especially for an extended stay should never be grouped in the same category as having a full term baby. The complete turning upside down of your world that a parent goes through when facing this situation is unbelievable-not only physical, but exreme mental exhaustion, displacement by not being able to go home for so long, and the incredibly horrible feeling of your whole world being put on hold. The world hasn’t stopped for us, it kept going. We have been deprived for so long of those incredible first moments and days at home bonding with our child. Now, that time is cut short. There should be special time allowed during the hospitalization of such sick preemies, and time allowed for coming home.
My daughter was born at 25 weeks after my appendix burst.
I had to ‘use or lose’ my 6 weeks leave right after she was born. I am back to work,
and she is still in the NICU. She probably won’t be released for 6 more weeks. Since companies go by the letter of the law,
the law should be changed to allow for much more time with a new baby, especially for preemies.
The US is far behind the rest of the world in realizing that society benefits from encouraging smart working women
to have children and realizing that children and society benefit from having a parent home for the first year.
I don’t see any resources for “Preemie Daycare”, either. So what are we supposed to do? Quit our jobs and go on welfare?
I am exhausted and angry.