[dvfjsdhgfv]

I wonder why that is. Wouldn't it make sense for the whole society to support the woman in this special period so that she can stay with her newborn 4 or even maybe 5 months if she desires instead of forcing her to go back after 12 weeks? 12-week old baby is really small, they really need a mother.

Not to mention the fact that the current recommendation for breastfeeding is 6 months - good luck doing it at work.

[drakonka]

While the spirit of this sentiment is admirable, I think it's also very important to encourage men to take parental leave. Both for the benefit of actually bonding and spending time with their child, but also because it benefits the mother and ultimately family unit as a whole by setting the expectation that both parents will be equally active in childcare.

I don't know the specifics, but I think where I live some portion of parental leave days are allocated specifically to each parent and cannot be transferred. There is also shared parental leave where the days can be allocated as desired, but some are specifically earmarked for each individual parent.

Anecdotally, I've had many coworkers regardless of gender take from a few months to a year off to be with their children, and firmly believe it benefits society and the work environment as a whole for them to be able (and encouraged) to do that.

[yieldcrv]

spreading out the costs to the aggregate state reduces the financial risk and allows for enabling the productivity of more members of society

a single organization takes on a large risk, merely hoping that other organizations do the same

so in the US, some organizations do it to be competitive but they are very few and far between, and are nowhere near offering to parents what developed nations do when spread across the state

people don’t start trying to do revenue producing things - like running a company - for those reasons. It has to be substantially greater financial reward than not starting the company or continuing it. I think this is often lost by people that want companies/employers to do other things with and for employees simply because of their prevalence. for companies that need employees, there are ways to make this easier for employees and less of a discretionary financial burden for employers

[wrboyce]

Just the woman? Is this period not special for the father?