Pregnant? Norway is the place to be
The difference in experience of mothers around the world just fascinates me. In some places it's still dangerous to have a baby, such as in some rural areas where midwives are few and far between. I'll give you a for instance: In Pakistan, 3 women die and 40 are disabled in childbirth every hour.
But in Norway, things are very different. Moms get 46 weeks of paid maternity leave. Dads get 4 weeks of the same. Eighty percent of Moms breastfeed their babies for at least 6 months (indicating good education and support readily available). Public breastfeeding is smiled upon, and if you're back at the workplace, your boss is required by law to give you two hours a day for nursing or pumping breaks.
Goddág!
But in Norway, things are very different. Moms get 46 weeks of paid maternity leave. Dads get 4 weeks of the same. Eighty percent of Moms breastfeed their babies for at least 6 months (indicating good education and support readily available). Public breastfeeding is smiled upon, and if you're back at the workplace, your boss is required by law to give you two hours a day for nursing or pumping breaks.
Goddág!
posted by Carrie Lauth at 3:04 PM
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8 Comments:
Yes, I had a friend who had a baby in Norway. Her husband was an exchange student in a college for a year. They do take good care of new mommies there!
Canada receives similar leave. We receive 50 weeks of maternity/parental leave. That can be split with the spouse.
Yeah,Norway is really good about that. In the UK you can also get parental leave so dads can be home for a while too. Breastfeed is encouraged and so are natural births.
I'm not sure about the maternity leave. I don't think it's quite as high as Canada or Norway... I think it's about 32 weeks.
I really, really think it's a shame that in the US it's something as low as 3 months?
It's also unpaid here ;)
Well Carrie, you'd have to pay those higher taxes you're not fond of if it was paid leave. ;-)
Touche my dear!
Actually my post wasn't trying to make a political statement. I just find the disparity in a Mom's experience of pregnancy, birth and mothering worldwide so interesting..
I totally agree. I used to work for a large Norwegian company. We used to talk about stuff like that with our Norwegian workmates all the time. I think you can go up to a year but after a certain time, your pay gets smaller. It's like a tiered thing but I'll take that over what we have in the US. Also - this I'm not sure if it's only for that company or practised widely in Norway, but that company I worked for, would 'hold' your job for those 45 weeks. So you could leave all that time and come back to your old job. You won't get a 'sorry but we have to hire someone else while you were gone so here's this crappy alternative'.
In Malaysia, we get I think it's 3 months paid leave. Still better than the US.
I think the priority is all wrong. These countries IMHO are emphasizing on nuturing our future. Here, it sometimes seems almost the opposite.
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