Paid Parental Leave

Our union, Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE) is in the middle of contract negotiations and is pushing for six weeks of paid parental leave for all parents - woman, man, adoptive parent, or bio parent.  It is also negotiating removing the limits on the use of sick leave for adoptive parents and biological fathers.  Parental leave in our contract has remained untouched since FMLA became effective in 1993.

Our union held a meeting earlier this week for its members to talk about the need for paid parental leave.  Union members affected by our lack of paid leave and politicians who have worked on this issue spoke.  So did the Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner who called the need for paid parental leave a public health issue. 

"Public health is what we as a society do collectively to assure the conditions to which all people can be healthy."

Yes, paid parental leave affects public health. Of the myriad of factors that work together to create a healthy community, the things we think of when we talk about being healthy - eating healthfully, exercising, not smoking - are only 10% of the picture.  The largest share of our society's health - 40% - is impacted by public policies and social and economic conditions.  Paid parental leave means that women who want to breastfeed will do it longer, babies with immature immune systems delay going to daycare and are less likely to visit the doctor or land in the hospital, parents follow through with bringing their children in for well-child visits or following a recommended course of treatment and parents don't go to work sick or send their children to daycare or school sick.  The list could go on, and you can read more in the Department of Health's White Paper on Paid Leave and Health, but the most sobering statistic the commissioner shared with us was that 10 weeks of paid parental leave reduces infant mortality by 10%. 

Before the meeting, one of my fellow state workers whose been helping organize union members around this issue, asked if employees would share their experiences with the state's leave policy. My story and many others were forwarded to the governor's office.  This is what I decided I needed to get off my chest.

We adopted two children, ages two and a half and three, from China in February of 2015 and paid parental leave would have greatly benefited the well-being of my whole family. 

Unfortunately, few understand that parents of adopted children also need parental leave.  Many assumed I’d come right back to work after getting home from China and one even questioned how I’d gotten permission to take such a long “vacation.” There’s a false belief that adopted children are easier than newborns because they’re not nursing and not waking throughout the night (not necessarily the case) and the mother is not recovering from childbirth.  So many don’t realize the trauma and loss adopted children have endured and the lasting impact this has on their lives, even when they were adopted as toddlers and eventually lose memories of their adoption.  Add to that a child who has been adopted internationally and is learning a new language and adjusting to a new culture, or a child with medical needs (who make the majority of international adoptions now) and it’s even clearer why parental leave is so important for adoptive parents as well. 

Planning my leave and deciding how much time off I could afford to take was incredibly stressful because I felt like I was choosing between not enough time off and much-less-than-adequate time off.   I had about seven weeks of sick and vacation time and two weeks of comp time accrued by the time my husband and I boarded the plane to China.  I felt fortunate to even have that much.  I was 33 years old when I started at Minnesota Housing with almost a decade of experience in my field, but I was starting over with no accrued leave and a two-year-old and 11-week-old at home.  Naturally, I regularly used sick time or vacation time due to sick children, doctors’ visits and daycare closings. 

To bring home my third and fourth children, I reluctantly decided to only take the 12 weeks allowed by FMLA even though our union contract allows us to take an additional three months through Parental Leave.  I was initially very thankful when I learned about Parental Leave, but when HR explained to me that it does not cover health benefits if you’re in “unpaid status” like under FMLA, I realized I would never be able to take advantage of it.  I carry the health insurance for our family of six and could not afford the $1,500 monthly COBRA payments, much less when on unpaid leave. I have short-term disability, but was not eligible for benefits for adoption. That left me with only the 12 weeks of FMLA, three of which would be spent in China. (China only requires one trip to complete the adoption, whereas other countries require two, or even three trips before you can bring home your child, or a four-to-eight-week stay in country.) Five weeks were unpaid once my accrued leave ran out, but I was almost forced to take more unpaid time even though I had the accrued leave.  I had three weeks of sick leave, but birth fathers and adoptive parents are only allowed to use five days.  With a letter from our social worker who documented the known medical needs of our children and time needed for bonding post-adoption, I was successfully able to petition to use up whatever sick time I had. 

Meeting our children in China was an incredible experience, but the hard work really started once we were home.  We arrived home on a Thursday and my husband, who had used up all his PTO, went back to work, still jet-lagged, the following Monday.  I was also out the door that Monday and off to Gillette Children’s Hospital, where we had a surgical consult for my son, who was born with cleft lip and palate.  My remaining nine weeks of FMLA were busy as I worked to address the medical needs we were aware of prior to their adoption, uncover previously undiagnosed needs and make up for their overall lack of medical care prior to joining our family.   This care between my two children included visits to the International Adoption Clinic and our pediatrician, palate repair surgery and a tough three-week recovery, diagnoses of hearing loss, ENT procedures under general anesthesia, ophthalmologist appointments, an MRI under general anesthesia, appointments with an attachment therapist who specializes in working with adopted children, evaluations through our school district, dentist appointments, re-vaccinating and treating parasites. 

My leave was busier than I wanted it to be because it left little time to bond with my new children who were exhibiting classic attachment issues related to adoption.  But I had no choice.  At most I would have been able to extend my leave by an additional two weeks by using my comp time.  However, because I had depleted my vacation and sick time, I needed to save my comp time for my children’s medical appointments in the coming months, including weekly speech therapy appointments for both kids. 

Paid parental leave will not benefit me since our family is complete.  Yet it’s something I still feel is crucial to supporting the well-being of employees and their families.  I hope that MAPE will negotiate a policy that reflects the varied family needs across its membership.