{"id":12895,"date":"2019-07-01T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/"},"modified":"2022-08-09T03:51:58","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T07:51:58","slug":"paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/","title":{"rendered":"Study: Paternity Leave Leads To Healthier Moms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">The need for maternity leave is obvious. Women who have given birth need time to recuperate from pregnancy, labor, and perhaps surgery. For moms who breastfeed, those first weeks are critical for establishing a feeding routine and steady milk production. It\u2019s time to bond and nurture with the baby, building feelings of trust, safety, and love.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">Dads need paternity leave too. Although fathers don\u2019t have to physically recover from pregnancy, they and their babies also benefit from the caregiving and bonding process.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">There\u2019s even more reason for fathers to take paternity leave: when dads have flexibility to be home with the baby, it helps moms recover better.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"line-height: 1.5;\" style=\"line-height: 1.5;\" id=\"dads-at-home-leads-to-healthier-moms\">Dads At Home Leads To Healthier Moms<\/h2>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">A new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nber.org\/papers\/w25902\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">study<\/a>, conducted by economists at Stanford University, looked at the effects of a 2012 Swedish law that allows fathers to take up to 30 days off from work as needed for a year after the birth of a child, while the mother is still on leave. In the first six months after childbirth, researchers found new moms had:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">26% decrease in anti-anxiety prescriptions<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">14% reduction in hospitalizations or visits to specialists<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">11% decrease in antibiotic prescriptions<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">Sweden already has a generous paid leave policy: 16 months to be divided between the parents, which can be used until the child is 12 or for parents to work part-time. However, in this policy, the leaves between the parents did not overlap except for ten days immediately following birth. The purpose of separate leaves was to encourage father-baby bonding and to promote gender equity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">Researchers in this study found that the fathers took only a few days intermittently within that six months, but those days may have been critical\u2014allowing moms to seek health care, sleep, and take preventative measures for their health. The flexibility to take those days ad hoc was also key.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"line-height: 1.5;\" style=\"line-height: 1.5;\" id=\"helping-mothers-in-the-fourth-trimester\">Helping Mothers In The \u201cFourth Trimester\u201d<\/h2>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">Pregnancy is usually divided into three trimesters, but the post-pregnancy period of recovery, dubbed the \u201cfourth trimester,\u201d deserves recognition. Women may still be in pain or have complications from childbirth. They are sleep deprived, overwhelmed, and often isolated. Since most new moms do not return to their doctor for their postpartum visit until six weeks later, problems can spiral within that time. Having support at home can help curtail a downward shift. That support does not have to come from the father, as it could come from a relative or same-sex partner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"line-height: 1.5;\" style=\"line-height: 1.5;\" id=\"leaves-becoming-more-flexible\">Leaves Becoming More Flexible<\/h2>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">A Mercer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercer.us\/our-thinking\/healthcare\/the-pressure-is-on-to-modernize-time-off-benefits-6-survey-findings.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">study<\/a> found more companies are offering paid parental leave\u201440% in 2018, up from 25% in 2015. Nearly a fifth of companies in the survey offer paid leave to take care of a sick family member, and 82% allow employees to use sick days to take care of a sick family member or other non-health issues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"line-height: 1.5;\" style=\"line-height: 1.5;\" id=\"employer-takeaway\">Employer Takeaway<\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5;\">Although the U.S. is the only industrialized country that does not have mandated paid parental leave, more companies are offering this benefit. This study indicates that as these programs are designed, they need to be flexible enough to provide support when it is most needed, benefiting moms, dads, and babies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The need for maternity leave is clear as women need time to recuperate from pregnancy, labor, and perhaps surgery. A less obvious leave that many companies fail to offer is paternity leave, which has been shown to lead to healthier moms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-facts-and-research"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v20.6 (Yoast SEO v24.8.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Study: Paternity Leave Leads To Healthier Moms | Wellable<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The need for maternity leave is clear as women need time to recuperate from pregnancy, labor, and perhaps surgery. A less obvious leave that many companies fail to offer is paternity leave, which has been shown to lead to healthier moms.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Study: Paternity Leave Leads To Healthier Moms | Wellable\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The need for maternity leave is clear as women need time to recuperate from pregnancy, labor, and perhaps surgery. A less obvious leave that many companies fail to offer is paternity leave, which has been shown to lead to healthier moms.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Wellable\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GetWellable\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-01T14:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-09T07:51:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Maternity%20leave.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Wellable\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@getwellable\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@getwellable\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Wellable\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Study: Paternity Leave Leads To Healthier Moms | Wellable","description":"The need for maternity leave is clear as women need time to recuperate from pregnancy, labor, and perhaps surgery. A less obvious leave that many companies fail to offer is paternity leave, which has been shown to lead to healthier moms.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Study: Paternity Leave Leads To Healthier Moms | Wellable","og_description":"The need for maternity leave is clear as women need time to recuperate from pregnancy, labor, and perhaps surgery. A less obvious leave that many companies fail to offer is paternity leave, which has been shown to lead to healthier moms.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/","og_site_name":"Wellable","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GetWellable\/","article_published_time":"2019-07-01T14:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-09T07:51:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":650,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Maternity leave.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Wellable","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@getwellable","twitter_site":"@getwellable","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Wellable","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/"},"author":{"name":"Wellable","@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f7c042b5403e555f4cd545a365023e71"},"headline":"Study: Paternity Leave Leads To Healthier Moms","datePublished":"2019-07-01T14:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-09T07:51:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/"},"wordCount":518,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Maternity leave.jpg","articleSection":["Facts and Research"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/","url":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/","name":"Study: Paternity Leave Leads To Healthier Moms | Wellable","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Maternity leave.jpg","datePublished":"2019-07-01T14:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-09T07:51:58+00:00","description":"The need for maternity leave is clear as women need time to recuperate from pregnancy, labor, and perhaps surgery. A less obvious leave that many companies fail to offer is paternity leave, which has been shown to lead to healthier moms.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Maternity leave.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Maternity leave.jpg","width":650,"height":500},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/paternity-leave-leads-to-healthier-moms\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Study: Paternity Leave Leads To Healthier Moms"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/","name":"Wellable","description":"Latest Research &amp; News in Wellness","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/#organization","name":"Wellable","url":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/favicon-wellable.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/favicon-wellable.webp","width":155,"height":157,"caption":"Wellable"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GetWellable\/","https:\/\/x.com\/getwellable","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/wellable-inc-\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCtTLlvZR-tKRBcb32l-rFXg"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f7c042b5403e555f4cd545a365023e71","name":"Wellable","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7ef55908793ea28069cb18e15eaaf0f0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7ef55908793ea28069cb18e15eaaf0f0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Wellable"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/34.168.145.72"],"url":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/author\/wellable-admin\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Maternity leave.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}