So, it turns out that this Family Medical Leave Act has a lot of fine print to it. I always assumed that “post-natal” was a medical state and thereby worthy of a good reason for twelve weeks of leave but apparently it’s not. As long as I am “healthy” and my baby is “healthy” it’s back to work as soon as the doctor says you’re ready to return. For my doctor this is six weeks. This was the answer his nurse gave me on the phone today. The answer I got from him personally when I asked him a few months ago was a little more vague and much more reassuring. “Don’t worry, we won’t send you back until you’re ready”. I interpreted this as his way of saying that the decision would be based just as much on the needs I voiced as it would be on his medical opinion. From what I gather from the nurse today, what my doctor probably meant when he said what he did is that he could always extend the leave if something happened, like if I had to undergo a c-section (ten weeks) or had post-natal depression (send me to a shrink and he’ll write my employer a note).
So, my advice to any pregnant working mother-to-be is to make sure and do you’re own research early rather than relying on others to do it for you (see Department of Labor). As it turns out, my supervisors at work have never had to deal with a full time working pregnant women on staff yet so they were unware of all the details too. In fact, our Human Resource lady even had to do some “research” to find out exactly what the policies and laws were. As a result, I’m two months away from delivery, thinking about the prospect of having to put my child in day care a full six weeks sooner than I was planning. I admitt, I’m in a panic. I’m home for dinner and I can’t even eat. It’s odd to think of the differences between this country and the one I was born in. I know this sounds snobby, I don’t mean to be but Norway is certainly much better when it comes to social welfare, specifically maternity leave (”almost all medical care is free, including prenatal and maternity care, and free day care is available for children of working mothers. A compulsory National Pension Scheme that was put into effect in 1967 provides old-age, disability, rehabilitation, widow, widower, and other benefits, including one-year paid maternity leave and universal child support. The average pension, which begins at age 67, corresponds to about two-thirds of recipients’ earnings during their highest-paid years”). Sure, they pay taxes up the ass, but at least the money actually goes towards something helpful to families.
So, I’m not sure how this is going to work. If Mike were here he would probably tell me to stop worrying and that we’ll work it out somehow which I’m sure he’s right. We’ll just have to adjust quicker than we originally planned too. I can remember back when we started talking about having children, we kept telling each other that we should stop trying to plan for it so much, that we had already been doing that for the past few years and every year we kept putting it off. We knew we wanted to wait until I finished school, but we didn’t know whether we wanted to wait until I had landed my first real job and we had moved and settled in our new home. So, we just decided to go for it and I started reading all those lovely websites about how it would take at least six months to become pregnant after quiting oral contraceptives which would be perfect since that meant I could get pregnant while still in school but have the baby some time after graduation. Nice and organized. BAM! One month. I guess Liam was organized too because he didn’t need six months. And that’s ok. Because whether we think we’re ready or not, he’s coming and I can’t wait. We’ll work out the details later. They don’t call us the “slacker” generation for nothin’.
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28.06.06 at 08:22:24
Mom (Lawson)
Rule No. 1:
Things ALWAYS work themselves out!!!
And don’t forget - this child will have grandparents only 10 mins away!
And a comment on your Norway rules; The new fathers also get paid maternity leave, can’t remember for how long though.
Mom
28.06.06 at 17:15:39
Carleen Huxley
I’m lucky, at least I get maternity leave, Mike get’s nothing.
29.06.06 at 04:14:19
Big Brother
Carleen I’m really sad to hear about this! First of all, I am surprised that you only have a “medical leave” - I thought you could get “maternal leave”! I guess not? Medical leave for giving birth is not maternity leave - are you getting that separately? If not, you are not getting any maternal leave at all.
I think that this experience, like so many others like it that people have in our society, really shows people in a way that nothing else can:
politics matters…
It really does. The laws which determine the rights and benefits that people get, whether in a moderately socialist society like Norway, or a more capitalist society like the United States are determined by the political powers that are selected, at least in a democracy, by its people. For people who can afford it which system they live in turns out to be largely a matter of convenience vs. waiting lists and high taxes. For those who cannot - the issue can be completely different.
A Korean friend of mine, a poor artist who was studying on a very small scholarship in New York for 3 months went to the hospital for an emergency. She had a urine test, an X-ray and a brief meeting with a doctor. She received and needed no medicine during this whole process. However, she was given a bill for $1400 and she won’t be able to get this back on any kind of insurance.
Contrast that bill with this second story. Last week I took Sayaka to the emergency room here in Korea, which has a national medical system (like Japan, Canada, Norway, Britain and most countries except the US), when she was pretty sick with some kind of a urinary problem, on a Sunday. She was given care in the emergency room (doctors not available on Sundy in normal wing) and two separate additional doctor appointments over the next week (one was a follow-up), was given various tests, an injection/IV bag of medication, 2 urine tests, a full week of medication and the total bill I think came to about $170 (which she will get back on her insurance anyways but even without insurance, it would have been affordable).
For those who simply cannot afford expensive health insurance, or are not provided sufficient coverage from their jobs - this is a huge issue. This is not a “lazy socialist freebees” vs. “industrious hard-working capitalists” - this is far more basic.
Now….about your maternity leave issue…
Last summer in the Norwegian election, while I was in Norway - the issue of maternity leave was a big election issue. There was a lot of complaints that the system was not good enough (!!)
Here is my blog entry on this topic:
http://muninn.net/blog/2005/09/children-marriage-and-norwegian-politics.html
Here is the important part:
The election was won by a left-wing coalition of the Labor party, the Socialist Left party, and the agricultural center party. Thus, these changes may have been implemented since I wrote that blog entry.
29.06.06 at 09:46:38
Carleen
On maternal vs. medical leave…my thoughts exactly. My maternity leave is subject to a doctors note, that is, the medical state of either me or the child. In fact, this was the reply I got from the person explaining this to me when I asked why new mothers were given so little time. “Well, because…you’re healthy”. My health is not the point and shouldn’t be used to justify maternity leave since it doesn’t take into consideration the basic right a mother (and father) should have to adjust and bond with their baby before handing them off to another caretaker.
The situation is even worse then it appears. I’m lucky that I can even rely on the Family Medical Leave Act. It only covers companies that have more than fifty employees. So, if you work for a small business, they don’t have to provide you with any leave. In fact, they even have the right to fire you because you’re pregnant (which actually just happened to one of my co-workers daughters). Just take a look at the questions being posted on the Labor Law Talk forum, http://www.laborlawtalk.com/archive/index.php/f-34.html . Maternity leave…even medical leave…turns out it’s not even a right in this country…but a privalege. Not only that, but the leave I’m getting isn’t actually being given to me. I’m merely being given permission to use all of the sick leave, vacation leave, family sick leave that I have accumulated thus far, all of which add up to exactly 6.97 weeks of leave. So, if I did need more time off, say, if I had a c-section which takes ten weeks to recover from, then I would have to get a doctor’s note, request permission for the leave, but because I don’t have the leave to cover the extra time, the city will make me pay them back the premiums they pay for my medical insurance. Apparently, this is “only fair”.
There is so much contradiction in this country. As American children, we’re raised to believe that we all have equal potential, we can be who we want to be, have whatever job we want as long as we put our minds to it. This is the American way, the dream that has defined this country for decades. But if I choose to be a public
librarian, or devote my life to a public instituation or even if I decide to work for a small business, that dream is put in jeopardy the minute I decide
to become a parent. Now, on the other hand, if I decide to be a lawyer or work for some kind of big company, you can bet your butt that I would have
more maternity leave available to me simply as a matter of company policy. They have the money to do that sort of thing, whereas a public library does
not. I guess this is capitalism for you. As I understand it, this is an idea that is meant to put us in charge of our own wealth and well being, yet, many of us end up being penalized depending on the route we choose to obtain that wealth. So in the end, it doesn’t seem like this idea of equal potential/opportunity exists.
30.06.06 at 23:20:15
Mike Huxley
Capitalist Pigs! I spit on you, Ptew! …. I mean….um….Go America!
:scurries off to learn the words to the Canadian National Anthem: