Love to hate the U.S. of A.

There are so many things I love about this country - how friendly and generally optimistic people are, the entrepreneurial and competitive spirit, the patriotism and the beauty of the country itself - of course, I could go on, but I'm not one for effusive praide. However, on the flip side of this, is the appalling lack of support the government provides to it's citizens - first in the region of health care but also in the domain of other benefits.

As a pregnant women thinking about time off to care for a newborn, I'm obviously now delving into the realm of pregnancy leave benefits, and the outlook aint pretty. In fact, I would be happy (or more likely unhappy) to say that (like our health-care system or lack thereof) it is a disgrace to this country and everything it represents. We may be first in medals at the Olympics people, but we've got a long way to go before we treat our average citizens with the compassion they deserve...

Here's an article I found on Money Central @ MSN.net that sheds some global light on this issue.

Take the labor out of maternity leave
U.S. policies for new parents lag behind most of the world -- we're right down there with Swaziland -- but here's how to get time off from work and make it more affordable. By MP Dunleavey


Let me tell you about my encounter with a Swedish woman I happened to meet while on my honeymoon in Greece three years ago.

My husband and I were on the romantic little island of Hydra because we were newlyweds. This woman was lounging on the beach with her husband and two tiny daughters because she was on maternity leave.

Like everyone else in America, I'd heard that Europeans have far more generous maternity policies than we do. There she was, all blond and relaxed, lying on a chaise while her toddler played in the sand with Dad, and her 4-month-old lay next to her under an umbrella.

It was hard not to hate her -- or want to move to Sweden -- when she told me the nauseating amount of time off Swedish mothers get: up to 480 days of paid leave.

I am not arguing that women must get a full year off with 80% pay and free meatballs, as they do in Sweden -- or maybe it was Ikea furniture, I don't know. My head was spinning.

But in terms of time, money and job flexibility, the United States' parental-leave policies lag so far behind everyone else in the world that they're a disgrace.

As a longtime freelancer, when I became pregnant I knew I'd pretty much have to fund my own maternity leave. What I didn't know is that whether you freelance or you're fully employed, it makes little difference: Women and their families face a ridiculous number of hurdles, financial and otherwise, when they try to take time off after the birth of a child.

A flawed law When I said the United States is way behind in its parental-leave policies, I wasn't kidding.

In 2004, Jody Heymann, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, studied maternity policies in more than 160 countries. All of them provided some sort of parental leave, paid for by the government -- except Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, Lesotho and . . . the good ol' U.S. of A.Thankfully, we have the Family and Medical Leave Act, which gives mothers and fathers up to 12 weeks off in the event of a birth and requires employers to hold the workers' jobs. Alas, those weeks are unpaid.

I don't know about you, but the number of weeks I can afford to take unpaid is zero.
Even the National Partnership for Women & Families, which wrote the family-leave law and helped to get it passed in 1993, is quick to point out its shortcomings:

• Many people aren't covered by the law because they don't meet its criteria.
• You need to have worked essentially full time for one year for a company with at least 50 employees.
• If workers aren't covered by the law, their employers are under no obligation to provide any maternity leave, paid or unpaid. Nor are they obligated to continue health benefits during any leave workers may take.

So how many companies step up and keep that paycheck coming, at least for a few weeks after you give birth? Probably about half, right?

Try 7%. According to a 2005 study by the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit research group in New York, only 7% of companies offer at least six weeks off with some pay.

Meanwhile, the number of employees who get fully paid maternity leave of any length dropped to 18% in 2005 from 27% in 1998.

"We live in a personal-responsibility culture, and for a long time now everyone has assumed, 'This is my problem,' " says Joan Blades, a co-founder of MomsRising.org, an online organization that lobbies for family-friendly policies. "But the fact is, when this many people are having a problem, this is a shared societal issue."

It is also a bureaucratic issue. If all you had to do was drum up enough money or save enough paid vacation days, maternity leave would be tough enough. But in addition, expectant parents have to be prepared to tackle numerous other factors that have an impact on their leave periods and their finances:

1. It takes time to take time off. Don't underestimate how long it may take you to arrange the maternity leave that works best for you, your family and your employer. "It took a year of planning," says Lori Quinones, a senior manager at a telecommunications company in Reston, Va. Quinones, who is expecting her second child in January, says that although she's covered by the family-leave law and plans to take those 12 weeks, she'll get only six to eight weeks paid at 85% of her salary, thanks to her short-term-disability coverage. She had to save her vacation days all year in order to get four more weeks paid, a perk that required some negotiating with her manager. In addition, she will roll over five paid sick days; she and her husband saved diligently for the rest. "I have definitely been more creative this time," she says.

2. Plug your financial holes When Brandi Hackney, who does clerical work at a hospital in Boaz, Ala., decided to take the 12 weeks allotted to her under the family-leave law, she and her husband had some financial gaps to fill. "I only had enough paid sick time built up for six weeks off, and since we were living paycheck to paycheck, this was a huge problem," says Hackney.
One of the couple's biggest expenses was a $335-a-month car payment. "As soon as I found out I was pregnant, every extra dime went to pay extra on the car," she says. All the surplus payments were credited toward their upcoming bills, "and pretty soon we owed nothing for several months in a row."In addition, Hackney says, she stocked up on as many household basics as she could in advance, from toiletries to frozen food. "Think about buying the small stuff you don't normally think about," she says. "Even a book of stamps can make a difference if you're going to be really strapped for cash."

3. Investigate company policies. Maternity leave isn't like vacation time; you don't just give your boss some dates and take off. Company policies differ wildly, so learn the terms well in advance. "Employers differ in whether you can use your accumulated sick days or vacation time as part of your maternity leave," says Debra Ness, the president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, the nonprofit advocacy group in Washington, D.C., that wrote the family-leave law and is working to expand it. Some employers require that you use your personal time first, as Hackney learned when she talked to her personnel department. "The rest of your leave is unpaid, unless you have short-term-disability coverage, which I didn't," Hackney says.Hackney was also surprised to find out that because she was on unpaid leave, she had to make provisions to cover her health-insurance premiums. Her 401(k) contributions were also discontinued. "Since I wasn't making money, I wasn't contributing anything," she says.
If you are getting part of your salary, you may also want to change your tax withholdings, adds Deven McGraw, the chief operating officer of the National Partnership. "Otherwise that first paycheck can be a bit of a shock."

4. Be a legal eagle. Many women don't realize that some states have put their own spin on the family-leave law, Ness says. "Some states offer 16 weeks off instead of 12," she says, in addition to other changes that may apply. California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island offer short-term-disability coverage that can be used for maternity leave. California is the only state that offers six weeks of paid parental leave, at 55% of pay, to almost all of its residents.
Ness recommends contacting your state department of labor for further information. You can also contact the National Partnership itself, which has analyzed family-leave policies state by state.

I wish I could say we lived in a place and time that made it easier for new parents to take time off and not worry about money, but being prepared is half the battle.

The other half will be raising our voices to let corporate and political leaders know that this situation is intolerable.

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I do know, from having employees I know take pregnancy leave at my company, that I can use sick and vacation pay to cover time off and that my employer continues to pay for my health insurance during that time. Plus I live in California where the benefits seem more generous and pay a portion of my pay check each month to that cute duck at Aflac, for private Short Term Disability insurance which will pick up some of the slack. So, I suppose I should consider myself to be one of the "lucky" ones.

Yet, the reality is that I actually take my vacations (unlike a vast majority of overworked Americans) and so, best case scenario, will only have 1-2 weeks of paid vacation available to me by the time I give birth, plus 3 weeks of sick time (providing I don't need any prior to delivery.) So, we're looking at 5 weeks max of paid time and then whatever disability provides which is around 55-80% (combined - private and State) of my pay.

For most American women this might sound like a dream situation but that in itself is just sad. As if it isn't hard enough to bring up a child in this country - health care costs, child care costs, falling school standards, cost of college - at a time when mother/father-t0-baby bonding is the most important, our government leaves us stressed-out scrimping and scraping to make ends meet. Shame on you America. Shame on you.