Paid Leave for Prenatal Care?
NEWSLETTER VOLUME 2.5
|February 05, 2024
Paid Leave for Prenatal Care?
Pregnancy is hard. It's not just the discomfort, energy needs, strange cravings, and waking up in a different body every day. For many of us, pregnancy can be deadly.
When I had my first child, I had severe post-partum depression that we didn't figure out for almost 18 months. I was definitely suicidal and came close. With my second, I almost bled to death following his birth. Both times I had great medical care and a caring doctor. But there are so many changes going on, it was hard for me to understand what's normal and what needed professional help. I am very lucky to still be here.
Too many of us don't make it. Maternal mortality is rising, especially for women of color. The US has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world and it's three times higher than other countries of comparable wealth. Infant mortality is also increasing.
Part of the reason is that the US Healthcare system has become more about money than health or care. As private equity buys up medical practices and hospitals then "optimizes" them, patients have more complications and poorer outcomes. Then, there is a shortage of obstetricians because of the political environment around abortion and reproductive health. Why would a young doctor choose a specialty that could land them in court, or worse, jail?
Currently, half of the counties in the US do not have any OB-GYN physicians practicing there.
Without care, both women and infants are dying at increasing rates.
Some states are trying to figure out what their government can do to help. The Governor of New York has some good ideas that may help, but paid time off for doctor's appointments doesn't help if you don't have access to care. And that's before we even begin to talk about our needs for safe and affordable childcare.
Here's a great summary of the NY proposal for pregnancy benefits and protections.
Hoping to “raise the bar” for the rest of the nation, Governor Hochul announced a first of its kind proposal that would allow qualifying workers in New York up to 40 hours of paid leave to attend prenatal appointments. While the state currently provides benefits beginning a month before a birth, the proposed plan would offer prenatal care as a separate qualifying event to ensure pregnant workers can meet their medical needs throughout their pregnancy.
This potentially groundbreaking effort is just one of many proposals Governor Hochul has floated in the new legislative session to better support pregnant workers and newborns across the state (including beyond the employment context), largely in response to rising infant and maternal mortality rates. Governor Hochul has also proposed providing funding for free portable cribs for economically disadvantaged New Yorkers, cutting co-pays for pregnancy care, training suicide counselors and medical professionals on maternal health and postpartum depression and anxiety, as well as a potential state initiative to reduce the rate of unnecessary cesarean sections.
In a similar vein, Governor Hochul also proposed an increase in disability leave benefits for the first time in 35 years. The new proposal envisions amendments to the State’s disability benefits law that would provide for weekly benefit amounts more closely mirroring the benefits to which workers are entitled under the State’s family leave law – a significant increase under the law’s current $170 benefit ceiling. In her proposal, Governor Hochul specifically cited the 33% of New York medical leave claims that are related to pregnancy-related disabilities and the 20% of New Yorkers who have a disability.
Each proposal is in the early stages, and we’ll keep you posted with additional details as they emerge and update this post accordingly.
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