Maternity security

American parents resort to crowdsourcing to fund maternity leaves

Since the United States does not support paid maternity leave, many new parents are having to come up with alternative solutions to spend time at home with their newborn babies, bonding and healing.

Pregnant women and new fathers in the United States are frustrated by the country’s lack of access to paid maternity leave. As a result, many are turning to crowdsourcing websites in order to raise the funds required to support themselves and their families for several months. If successful, they can spend time caring for and bonding with a newborn baby, instead of rushing off to work within days or weeks of delivery.

It is ridiculous that the United States is the only industrialized country that does not support paid maternity leave. In Canada, parents can share up to 50 weeks of leave; in Norway, it is 44 weeks. Most European countries offer 4 to 5 months of paid leave, and even the developing nations of Mexico and Pakistan provide 12 weeks of paid leave for new mothers. Australia guarantees 18 weeks of leave at the federally mandated minimum wage.