“Motherhood does not produce a profit for Capitalists & therefore caring for a new baby is not considered valuable effort.”

C’mon, America.

“Yeah this is very much an America thing. Most other developed countries have been better than this for decades.”

“Even in Brazil we have 4 to 6 months.”

“German moms receive 6 weeks before their due date off, and only 8 weeks after birth at 100% paid by health insurance. Then it goes to 60% pay for up to two years. We consider that inadequate.”

“I live in Texas, which has the highest infant mortality rate in the [developed world] because the cut off for uninsured medical care is at 60 days. It’s sinful.”

“I’m fairly certain North Korea has a better maternity leave than us.” Yup: 11 weeks.

“In Australia you get a minimum of 6 months paid maternity leave.”

“In UK it’s 39 weeks paid SMP, and an additional 13 unpaid (if you choose). They also brought in shared parental leave, meaning you can split up those 39 weeks with dad if you want to. So you could take 20, he take 19 weeks, either together or at different times.”

“Sounds a lot like how we do it here in Denmark.

4 weeks before and 14 weeks after the birth the woman goes on leave. During this period the dad has right for 2 weeks leave (which can be extended). After that, they have another 32 weeks of leave each. The dad has the possibility of pushing his 32 weeks of leave into the first 14 week (what I said could be extended). So mother and father has the possibility of being together with their newborn if they so pleases for the first 7-8 odd month.

It is really flexible, and most parents picks to first have mom home and then dad home over the course of a year.” Comments via.

Our country is upside-down. Let’s tax Wall Street, push those bonuses over to teachers and mothers and fathers. Let’s honor service, not selfishness. Let’s honor dads who want to be good fathers. Let’s support mothers, and reduce infant mortality in the process. Let’s be the kind of country, and world, that we can and should be.

We can do it—all we have to do is be aware, then care, then act. That’s where Elephant comes in.  Write. Subscribe. Share. Every action you take with Elephant—we’re indie media, a rare species these days—helps. We need you, as Facebook is cutting the ties to our fans on that platform. So if you used to find us on Facebook, please share our articles and share this newsletter (the link to subscribe, free, is elephantjournal.com/best). Email it and recommend it to a dozen friends, or more. If half of you did so, you’d double our ability to reach beyond our choir to all those who might give a care.

Join Elephant Academy.

Relephant bonus: