Can You Afford to Be a Parent?

Everday, federal government employees find themselves in a very difficult position - deciding between having a child and having a job in the public sector.

While the Family Medical Leave Act provides new parents with a total of 12 weeks without pay for the birth and care of a new child, the overall maternity leave policy is not generous enough. This policy of 12 weeks of unpaid leave overlooks two vital factors. First, the number of hours required to provide proper medical attention to a pregnancy. Second, the fact that losing pay to care for a child is an impossibility for many Americans.

According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, an average pregnancy lasts about 40 weeks and requires 14 doctor visits. Travel to and from the office, plus actual office time, takes approximately 1.5-2 hours. This translates to 21-28 hours just for office visits. Without any other sick time taken, that leaves a woman with 76-83 hours of sick leave at the end of a pregnancy. If the woman is over 35 years of age or the pregnancy is high risk because of health problems such as high blood pressure, more visits will be necessary. To maintain proper health in any given year, a woman will visit the dentist twice, the doctor once for a physical check-up, and an eye doctor for an annual exam. This reduces available sick time by an additional 6-8 hours.

This policy also assumes general health of a woman prior to pregnancy. A young woman who suffers from cancer, or even less life-threatening diseases, such as mononucleosis, likely has little, if any, sick leave available to her for a pregnancy or any related necessary time off. She then must depend on the kindness of co-workers to provide her with sick leave donations. While the opportunity to receive donated leave is a good concept, it will not always be the case that there will be generous co-workers or co-workers who themselves do not need the leave. For most families, twelve weeks of unpaid leave from my job is simply an impossibility.