'Mapping Paid Mat Leave' -have you seen this?

[Celesse]

I find it totally barbaric that babies are expected to be away from their mothers so young and in what is meant to be one of the most civilised countries in the world. It was hard enough leaving by baby at 11 months to go back to work, 6 months would still have been very hard, but 3 months???? That seems cruel. They were both so dependant on me for everything at that age, not just food, but every day we were in total contact with each other most of the time. They were on my knee playing or asleep or being fed all day long.

 

[2have4kids]

But over here mat leave and pay is totally separate from Healthcare

<--true, same in Canada. It comes out of unemployment insurance,which we all contribute to on our paycheques. I've been contributing to this for 23 years and not once collected so I'll be excited to take some paid time off using the tens of thousands that I've contributed

Unemployment Insurance has just gone through reforms in Canada lately. You can't just do a 6 month seasonal job and then sit on your heiny and collect EI for the rest of the year. You need to move to where there is work or train up and do another job for the rest of the 6 months. Summer bush pilots and fishermen were the biggest abusers of the system and now there's more money to help those who really need it.

Celesse, back in the 50's-80's Canada had a similar system where if you didn't come back to work after only a short period of time your employer could give your job away. My mom had to quite and gve up her seniority and pension in order to have us. I was outraged when I heard this but then when I saw the info graphic and see that the US does the same thing I was shocked.

 

[Tulip]

Totally agree Celesse!

 

[cookette]

Emcakess I'm sorry, it's not fair. Women should have more rights in this day and age.
Cookette, IVF is paid for in Britain & Quebec (qualifying 1 to 3 tries by diagnosis and age) because it's thousands of times less expensive to cover IVF than multiple premature babies. Which is what happens when women like octomom have to pay for IVF privately. It's hugely expensive, you get 1 shot if you're lucky so we put all of the embryo's back. Even on twins, my gf's surgeries for 25 week old preemies were ~$500,000 mark each. She doesn't pay the bill for this, the public health care system does. So instead of flying specialists in to deal with heart defects, they pay a $7500 tab for a crack at IVF with a mandated 1 embryo transfer. Bam, quality of life for the masses and cost control for a public health care system. Abusers too can be mitigated by a properly run system, however there needs to be a want from the people for healthcare privileges rather than fear that you'll wind up paying someone else's bill. (It costs us $40/month here in Canada, nothing much to winge at).

Thank you for the IVF explanation, I had no idea. It makes sense, but if you also irresponsibly have 8 kids, shouldn't you be accountable for that? But yet its a human life, so we are ALL responsible.

I see both sides, I just dont think I agree with either...

 

[Claralee]

I am from the UK and fully support the NHS (my dad has metatastic cancer and has had wonderful care and is on the latest v. expensive drugs all through the NHS). It's not perfect but at least everyone can get healthcare without worrying about how they are going to pay for it and if you want to go private you can. I now live in the US and couldn't believe that the max "Maternity leave" (Fmla) is only 12 weeks. People that can't afford to take 12 weeks unpaid don't get to spend time at home with their baby, I agree with pp that that is barbaric. And what about women that want to go back to work but would like to spend 6 months with their baby first? Not an option here

 

[bananaboat]

I work for a private company in the Boston area. We are allowed 12 weeks off covered under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This protects your job while you're out. Pay is through short term disability (60% of your weekly salary). Short term disability does not kick in until the 15th day of leave so we need to use personal time/vacation pay to cover those first few weeks if we want to get paid.

Certainly not ideal, but I don't see it changing anytime soon in the US!

 

[TTC First]

Im in the states dont know a whole lot about the obamacare but i hear alot of people complaining about it. I currently dont work df makes enough to take care of everything but i know at my old job there was no maternity leave one of the girls there had to save her whole tax check to cover her bills why she was out and was only able to take 4 weeks off cause she couldnt afford anynore than that. Made me feel bad i do agree women should have more options here.

I agree and I believe it starts with providing some sort of universal health care. It works it's way up into eventually covering IVF's like they do in Britain under NHS (even Canada doesn't have this yet but hopefully we'll work towards this soon). Sure there's wait times but if you feel you're above wait times then there's always a private system to use (if you have $$$). People complain of wait times but then they forget that there's also a user pay system to fall back on. Sometimes the negative sticks to our memory better than getting the cancer cured or the surgery done free 5 months down the line.

Doctors will always leave public practice to make heaps of money in private practice as they do all over the world-it's human nature. But to have no healthcare as a citizen unless you're born with gold bricks in your pockets - well somehow all this seems fair to the PC's in Canada and the Republicans in the USA. Hopefully the individual states will set something up as some of the provinces sometimes do here in Canada (Quebec) until at least the universal healthcare in the US is broad enough to support better quality care for the masses. But there is something wrong with having nothing unless you work for Google, Oprah or were born into riches. I'd prefer to live somewhere where the common person has a little social equity/justice. A person can argue they had to wait when in a country that provides universal care but at least there are options, I'll take that over nothing at all.

Did you know Quebec is covered for IVF? I was going to a fertility clinic here and they mentioned it to me. I was thinking of moving there during my fertility treatment. lol

I have also heard that that many countries there is a wait to get into a fertility clinic or for IVF, here there are no wait lists I guess because it's private.

Not sure what is better, free but wait list or costly but no wait.

 

[2have4kids]

Did you know Quebec is covered for IVF? I was going to a fertility clinic here and they mentioned it to me. I was thinking of moving there during my fertility treatment. lol

I have also heard that that many countries there is a wait to get into a fertility clinic or for IVF, here there are no wait lists I guess because it's private.

Not sure what is better, free but wait list or costly but no wait.

Yes I sure have heard that Quebec is covered, I'm insanely jealous. The people of Quebec have strong social values, they place children, family, healthcare and quality of life high up there on the totem pole. Here in AB you talk to every third person and they'll tell you they don't want to pay for other lazy people's healthcareWe all know it doesn't work like that, at some point we ALL need healthcare!
I agree most places that have public health covered services have a bit of a wait period. My IVF wasn't covered but I still had to wait 3-6 months in the private system here because demand is high with our clinic (so even in a private system waits happen). Last year alone I paid over $20,000 in treatments But you can always do private or fly to another country to have medical treatments (I was forced to because Canada doesn't do fresh donor egg treatments- after my $20K was spent/after all of my failed IUI's & IVF's, adoption would have been my only option -I want to be a mom & pregnant!) Canada's ahead in some areas but FAR behind in others (no donor egg/sperm options as almost every other country in the world does). The World Health Organization views fertility conditions including infertility and maternity as valid medical conditions and has advised that they are to be treated like any other known problem ie a broken leg or cancer. So then why aren't we taking it more seriously? Is it because it's primarily womans' issues and men are in the decision chair?

What I fear is that Harper is modelling our system after the States and cutting (especially) women's services, brokering deals to pay Germany more for drugs, disallowing generics onto the markets making it far more expensive for Canadians. The PC's are systematically running the healthcare system into the ground in Canada eventually to point the finger and say 'see, we need a private only health care system like the USA ...as they've already tried to sell to the public here in Alberta'. When what we should be doing is looking to successful countries like Britain, Sweden, Norway etc as they have a better quality of living. (I measure quality of living as having access to services without being rich)Quebec can go there, so should the rest of Canada.

 

[emicakess]

I find it totally barbaric that babies are expected to be away from their mothers so young and in what is meant to be one of the most civilised countries in the world. It was hard enough leaving by baby at 11 months to go back to work, 6 months would still have been very hard, but 3 months???? That seems cruel. They were both so dependant on me for everything at that age, not just food, but every day we were in total contact with each other most of the time. They were on my knee playing or asleep or being fed all day long.

I completely agree with you. If it weren't for money I would be a stay at home mom for awhile. I haven't talked to my boss again yet but judging by her negative reaction when I mentioned "3 months", I am thinking my unpaid leave is going to be much less than 3 months. I am so incredibly sad about this I could cry when I think about it, I've always thought 3 months wasn't enough time but now its going to be even less..

 

[Celesse]

I find it totally barbaric that babies are expected to be away from their mothers so young and in what is meant to be one of the most civilised countries in the world. It was hard enough leaving by baby at 11 months to go back to work, 6 months would still have been very hard, but 3 months???? That seems cruel. They were both so dependant on me for everything at that age, not just food, but every day we were in total contact with each other most of the time. They were on my knee playing or asleep or being fed all day long.

I completely agree with you. If it weren't for money I would be a stay at home mom for awhile. I haven't talked to my boss again yet but judging by her negative reaction when I mentioned "3 months", I am thinking my unpaid leave is going to be much less than 3 months. I am so incredibly sad about this I could cry when I think about it, I've always thought 3 months wasn't enough time but now its going to be even less..

How young does your pre-school take? Will you be able to take baby with you? Or could you move job to a pre-school that does take babies? Even if baby was in a different room to you.

Of course thats assuming "pre-school" works the same in the States as it does here. My daughter's pre-school take 2.5yr to 5yrs. But there are other pre-schools here where its a nursery that takes from babies all the way through to school age.

 

[emicakess]

I find it totally barbaric that babies are expected to be away from their mothers so young and in what is meant to be one of the most civilised countries in the world. It was hard enough leaving by baby at 11 months to go back to work, 6 months would still have been very hard, but 3 months???? That seems cruel. They were both so dependant on me for everything at that age, not just food, but every day we were in total contact with each other most of the time. They were on my knee playing or asleep or being fed all day long.

I completely agree with you. If it weren't for money I would be a stay at home mom for awhile. I haven't talked to my boss again yet but judging by her negative reaction when I mentioned "3 months", I am thinking my unpaid leave is going to be much less than 3 months. I am so incredibly sad about this I could cry when I think about it, I've always thought 3 months wasn't enough time but now its going to be even less..

How young does your pre-school take? Will you be able to take baby with you? Or could you move job to a pre-school that does take babies? Even if baby was in a different room to you.

Of course thats assuming "pre-school" works the same in the States as it does here. My daughter's pre-school take 2.5yr to 5yrs. But there are other pre-schools here where its a nursery that takes from babies all the way through to school age.

We take 15 months to 5 years and I do plan on having my babe with me but I can't have her until she is 15 months. I actually REALLY want to move to a different preschool ( probably can't now that I'm pregnant) but I've gotten myself in a jiffy.. I am currently a teachers aid and sub. Now I have agreed to open up and take on my own new classroom. I an super excited about that but at the same time now I feel stuck for awhile. And my (new) director is so unorganized; first the room was going to open at the beginning of January, then it was beginning of February, then it was middle of January.. Now its almost middle of January and I don't see it opening soon. So I don't know what's going on or what to think. Anyway there's a lot more to it but I won't rant anymore. I just wish I could be a stay at home mommy for awhile!