How long are we considered responsible for our children? Because we are supposed to be as parents always. Now, when a baby is born, how long does the state consider that the newborn needs the care of his mother or father until third parties can take care of it?
In Spain is 16 weeks, less than 4 months, in what is a totally insufficient loss if we consider that exclusive breastfeeding is advised for 6 months, that at that age has not even begun to eat and that continues to wake up a lot at night and needs attention of someone almost 24 hours a day.
Insufficient, but long if we compare it with what happens in the United States, where the death of two babies in the nursery has ignited the debate of maternity leave: her two mothers returned to work only two weeks after giving birth.
If they did not return to work they lost a lot of rights
Their names are Amber Scorah Y Ali Dodd, and they didn't know each other until they decided to fight for the rights of all the mother mothers of the country. Both are women who returned to work two weeks after being mothers and who had to leave their babies in nursery. Otherwise, they would have lost their jobs and health coverage for themselves and their babies, as ElDiario explains.
The two babies died in April and July 2015, when they died because no one was with them under constant surveillance: when the caregivers went to attend them they had stopped breathing.
And it is that nurseries and nursery schools do a job worthy of praise on many occasions, but it is still a situation in which each of the caregivers has more than one baby in their care. Even when the ratios are low, babies are much less cared for than if it were the mother who stays with the child.
Now they request that the maternity leave be created
Comparing their situation with that of other countries (in the US there is no paid maternity leave), they considered that it was an important tort and that they should fight for women can have a wide maternal leave With what to take care of your babies. Thus, they initiated a collection of signatures and drafted a statement that they have delivered to the campaign headquarters of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Currently, US law only protects the job for workers for 12 weeks after having a child, and this only happens in companies with more than 50 workers and without receiving any salary.
Scorah, one of the two women, explains her fight in this way:
Most babies do not die in daycare, of course. But our instinct is that both Karl and Shepard (the deceased babies) would have had more attention if they had been with us. USA It has the highest percentage of infant mortality among developed countries.
But in Spain children do not die in kindergartens
Normally not, because they spend 16 weeks with parents, and especially with the mother. But the struggle for a more logical, longer maternal leave is not made for the baby to survive, but for the baby to be better cared for in the first months of his life, his parents have time to know him better, become more autonomous and experts in their care, and can accompany your baby in each milestone.
If we compare ourselves with the US, it is clear that we are much better ... but if we compare ourselves with Sweden, that instead of 16 weeks they have 16 months, in which the mother and father share the leave for the care of a child, it is clear that we are light years away. The difference? In Sweden they care about children and they are clear that they are the future of their nation. In Spain, no.
Returning to Amber Scorah and Ali Dodd, after what happened a year ago, of losing their babies, They are pregnant again. Although the law is believed and women have maternity leave they will not enjoy it, because their babies will be born before that happens. However, they want to fight for all future mothers in the country who may enjoy it.
