So disappointing!

Whenever anyone asked how long I planned to work before I took maternity leave, I gave the same answer: "Until my water breaks in the newsroom."

And while that didn't happen, I did work until the evening that I began to have serious contractions. In fact, I was outside in below-freezing weather cleaning inches of snow off my car in the parking lot at work just hours before we were driving to the hospital -- car seat and hospital bag in hand. I even stayed a little late at the office that night because a story broke at 5 p.m., and I was asked to contribute. Naturally, I was glad to help. That's my job. But working until the day before you have a baby is no fun. That's a fact, and unfortunately, more women are just like me, according to the NY Times. (More below.)

Bottom line is: who can afford to do anything else? I certainly didn't want to take time off before I had the baby because that would just take away from my leave time when M. was born. Even now, I can't believe that more than two weeks have gone by, and I will only be spending 9-and-a-half additional weeks with my baby. Then I'll go to seeing her for just a few hours each night. How unnatural.

Again, it's a sign of the times. A very sad sign, in my opinion. (And this brief discussion doesn't even get into all the nuances of short-term leave and the Family Medical Leave Act, which are much less family-friendly than I originally thought.) While the story mentions that a lot of women are going back to work sooner because of the protections FMLA offers, etc., I think it's because most families just can't afford to do otherwise!

From the New York Times...

As women have children later than ever and more work outside the home, they are also working longer into pregnancy and returning to work faster than they did four decades ago, the Census Bureau said Monday.

The trend reflects a number of developments since the early 1960s, including more opportunities for pregnancy leave, paid and unpaid, and increased protections for pregnant women against job discrimination.

In the early part of that decade, 44 percent continued to work during pregnancy; that rose to 67 percent among women who gave birth to their first child between 2001 and 2003.

The share who quit work before or after giving birth dropped to 25 percent, from about 36 percent in the late 1980s. (Comparable data from the 1960s was not available.) Nearly half took paid leave. Fewer than 4 percent said they were fired from their jobs before or after giving birth.

Fully 80 percent of the women who worked during their pregnancy from 2001 to 2003 continued to do so into the last month of pregnancy, compared with 35 percent in 1961-65.

In the early part of this decade, 55 percent returned to work within six months after giving birth; that figure was 14 percent in the early 1960s...
For the rest of the story, click here.