The Monumental British Maternity Leave Policy

The British are at it again. Recently, they passed a law increasing their already monumental paid maternity leave from 9 months to 1 year. While many fertile British women are overjoyed, not everyone is pleased with the British law. Why? Well, because it's ridiculous.

I will be the first to admit that I happily used up the maternity leave afforded me after the birth of my daughter. Though I had only just entered the corporate world after separating from the Air Force, when my husband accidentally knocked me up I knew it was time to exit it. Pregnancy had shown me that what I wanted most was to be as close to a stay-at-home mom as we could afford. When my daughter was born, I took my 6 weeks of paid maternity leave, my 12 weeks of unpaid FMLA, then reluctantly returned to work on a part-time schedule. Less than 2 years later, I now work from home.

Trust me when I say that I believe in the importance of family. I believe that parents, not providers, should raise children. I believe in creative work schedules. I believe that daycare is an absolute last resort. I also believe in maxing out FMLA. At the same time, I don't believe that any employer should be hurt by an employee's decision to bear children. Apparently, British Parliament disagrees.

In America, we legally expect an employer to hold an employee's position for 12 unpaid weeks, sometimes longer, while they tend to their newborn. To a new mom, 12 weeks can fly by in a moment. Even with the additional 6 weeks of paid leave, I was still not ready to leave my daughter, even for a few hours a day. I can understand why employees might adopt a "the more, the merrier" attitude about maternity leave. However, those employees have probably never been employers.