Originally published in The Progressive Magazine on October 22, 2025.
A week before I gave birth last February, the research team I work with published a study in a prominent scientific journal on how paid family leave affects maternal and child health. The study found that having access to paid family leave led to a decrease in postpartum depression and an increase in the number of weeks babies are breastfed.
Yet the United States remains the only high-income country without a national paid family leave policy. Our sole federal policy, the Family and Medical Leave Act, only requires unpaid leave. Some states have enacted their own policies: California, where I live, mandates eight weeks of partially paid leave.