This is not breastfeeding specific, so please feel free to skip if you like.
This is in response to Katherine Dettwyler's comments about fee for
service.
Paying out of pocket is exactly what my husband and I did when we chose to
work with midwives during the pregnancies and births of our two children.
When we knew we would be getting ready to start a family, I checked into the
health plans at my place of employment at the time, and none of them covered
midwifery care. Once we knew insurance didn't cover it, we started saving.
My husband and I had decided before we were even married that, should we
ever have children, we would work with midwives and have home births
(ultimately laboured at home and birthed in hospital with the first, had a
home birth with the second).
We also started saving for an unpaid maternity leave for our second shortly
after I returned to work when our first was 3 months old. As we caluculated
it, I could have 12 weeks paid leave if we wanted our second child in 2
years, but only if I took 3 paid days off during that time. Paid maternity
leave could be up to 6 weeks sick time and the rest in earned time off. We
decided holidays during our daughter's first 2 years were more important
than full paid leave with the second.
This experience with maternity leave made us think how employers could
significantly impact family planning decisions should families be unable to
save money as we were. I mean, I could have had 12 weeks paid leave with
the second, and taken holidays, if we'd spaced out our children to 4 years
instead of 2, but we wanted our kids 2 years apart. This is an issue I
never read/hear about when maternity leave or family leave is discussed:
how the current USA policies allow for family planning freedom only for
those better off financially, at least with respect to obtaining paid
maternity leave and child spacing.
Wanda Mertick, RN, MN, IBCLC
Port Matilda, PA
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