School nurse and maternity leave

AdobeRN · Mar 16, 2016

Just like one of the previous posters stated - check into short term disability. Usually that is something you need to pay extra for when signing up for your benefits. It usually kicks in after you have used up all of your sick time/vacation days.

May not be relevant anymore since I too am far removed from the pregnancy stuff - but when I had my kids that was the route I took and used the 12 week family leave.

We too have teachers that have strategically planned out when they got pregnant - delivered in June and did not return to work till November because the 12 week family leave did not start counting till actual work days in August or would deliver in March/April then have the summer off.

JerseyTomatoMDCrab, BSN · Mar 16, 2016

Posts like this remind how truly deplorable the accommodations for women on maternity leave are in the US. We are the only civilized country in the world with such awful policies regarding leave.

But if a woman chooses NOT to become a mother, she may be criticized for that. Ugh. Sorry, I will be removing myself from my soapbox now.

europe_nurse · Mar 17, 2016

Posts like this remind how truly deplorable the accommodations for women on maternity leave are in the US. We are the only civilized country in the world with such awful policies regarding leave.
But if a woman chooses NOT to become a mother, she may be criticized for that. Ugh. Sorry, I will be removing myself from my soapbox now.

I can't imagine having to go to work a soon as you have to do in the US. Where I live the mother gets 3 months of paid parental leave, the father 3 months and then there are 3 months that the parents can choose who takes (usually the mother). You can then distribute your months of parental leave on to more months but then get less paid each month. I stayed home for 13,5 months last time. 12 months parental leave and then 6 weeks of vacation days.

This system is not perfect, you get 80% of your salary and there is a limit that affects you if you have high salary and we don't think 9 months total is enough and hopefully it will sooner than later be changed to a year. but at least there is no pressure to go early back to work and it is very common for the mothers to stay home for a year and the fathers either take their leave with the mothers or after the mothers go back to work.

BeckyESRN · Mar 17, 2016

I can't imagine having to go to work a soon as you have to do in the US. Where I live the mother gets 3 months of paid parental leave, the father 3 months and then there are 3 months that the parents can choose who takes (usually the mother). You can then distribute your months of parental leave on to more months but then get less paid each month. I stayed home for 13,5 months last time. 12 months parental leave and then 6 weeks of vacation days.
This system is not perfect, you get 80% of your salary and there is a limit that affects you if you have high salary and we don't think 9 months total is enough and hopefully it will sooner than later be changed to a year. but at least there is no pressure to go early back to work and it is very common for the mothers to stay home for a year and the fathers either take their leave with the mothers or after the mothers go back to work.

That would be incredible!

In the states, your employer is required to give you 12 weeks of FLMA leave, however if need days off during your pregnancy (appointments, bed rest, ect) those days count toward your 12 weeks. ALL of your leave is unpaid unless your specific company has a progressive policy(incredibly rare) or you purchase your own short term disability leave policy. A lot of families cannot afford to be without income for this amount of time. My best friend went back to work 6 days after giving birth!!! She was a single mom and there was no way being without income was going be an option. Even with short term disability, which pays usually 55-70%, you get 8 weeks post C-section and 6 weeks post lady partsl delivery. Forget paternity leave, paid or not, that is magical unicorn...

europe_nurse · Mar 17, 2016

That would be incredible!
In the states, your employer is required to give you 12 weeks of FLMA leave, however if need days off during your pregnancy (appointments, bed rest, ect) those days count toward your 12 weeks. ALL of your leave is unpaid unless your specific company has a progressive policy(incredibly rare) or you purchase your own short term disability leave policy. A lot of families cannot afford to be without income for this amount of time. My best friend went back to work 6 days after giving birth!!! She was a single mom and there was no way being without income was going be an option. Even with short term disability, which pays usually 55-70%, you get 8 weeks post C-section and 6 weeks post lady partsl delivery. Forget paternity leave, paid or not, that is magical unicorn...

If the mother for some reason has to quit working early during the pregnancy and has finished up her sick days she can get 2 months extra of paid maternity leave.

The system in the US just seems to make it impossible for mothers to recover and for the family to adjust to live with a new child. I also can't imagine going through a difficult pregnancy with the worries that I needed to work otherwise having to go back to work sooner after giving birth. We complain a lot about our parental leave - you are definately not rich while you stay at home during your leave but at least for most parents it is possible to stay at home for at least 6 months.

I guess if I was a school nurse in the US I would try as I could to have a spring baby to be able to stay with the baby during the summer.

DEgalRN · Mar 17, 2016

That would be incredible!
In the states, your employer is required to give you 12 weeks of FLMA leave, however if need days off during your pregnancy (appointments, bed rest, ect) those days count toward your 12 weeks. ALL of your leave is unpaid unless your specific company has a progressive policy(incredibly rare) or you purchase your own short term disability leave policy. A lot of families cannot afford to be without income for this amount of time. My best friend went back to work 6 days after giving birth!!! She was a single mom and there was no way being without income was going be an option. Even with short term disability, which pays usually 55-70%, you get 8 weeks post C-section and 6 weeks post lady partsl delivery. Forget paternity leave, paid or not, that is magical unicorn...

And that's only if you qualify for FMLA in the first place! Small company, nope, part time, less than 1250 hours in a year, nope, haven't been at your job for a year, nope.

And not all STDs cover c-sections at 8 weeks automatically, either. Mine didn't. I had to have my OB appeal, which was her filling out a form, so honestly pretty easy. But really, really dumb regardless since I had just had major abdominal surgery.

If you want paid family leave, move to NJ, join the military, or work for a huge corporation (taking Google, major banks, Netflix, etc.).

It is a very, very sad state of affairs.