Young woman gives birth to a premature baby, but is forced to return to work after only 12 days of maternity leave: a new mother's plea
Every mother needs to stay at home for a while with her baby immediately after giving birth. If this applies to anyone, we are referring in particular to working mothers who have legally obtained a certain number of weeks of maternity leave. The number of maternity days granted may vary from country to country. The United States, for example, does not yet have a national paid parental leave program in place, and only 21% of US workers are able to get paid by their employers. Normally, an employee can go on maternity leave for 12 unpaid weeks. But, besides the fact that these days are not paid, what happens to those moms who are absolutely not ready to go back to work after such a short time?
Rebecca Shumard, a young mother of a premature baby, had to face this issue.
Rebecca Shumard is a 26-year-old mother who, sadly, wasn't ready to go back to work after giving birth to a premature baby. Rebecca gave birth very early, at 27 weeks, and was forced to return to work just 12 days after giving birth - well before 12 weeks of maternity leave had been used up!
And it would have been even more important for Rebecca to have an extra period of time to be close to her little girl. Eden. who, as you can imagine, had to stay in intensive care.
Rebecca shared a video on TikTok in which she is trying to continue her normal life at work - but she can't: the new mother is in tears, she feels guilty and is upset for not having had enough time to be next to her daughter, Eden. If even 12 weeks is too short of a maternity period, 12 days is really nothing in comparison. Rebecca does not seem in a position to work in peace, and at the end of the video she states that "this is America" - in an accusatory, bitter tone, directed towards a system that makes promises, but that in the end doesn't work.
"This country does nothing for children", wrote someone, "they give priority to work and that's it." The young mom has received tons of supportive and helpful messages, which is why she is doing her best to recover and live her life as a mom as best she can. She now hopes that the video will also reach those in power and she hopes that one day the issue of maternity leave in her country can be resolved.
