Co-benefits of Paid Maternity Leave for Infant/Mother and Employer

Abstract

The United States has one of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates of developed nations, and is only one of two countries with no national paid maternity leave, contributing to premature weaning in working mothers. Paid maternity leave is associated with improved infant and maternal health outcomes and economic benefits to employers through decreased employee turnover and increased productivity. In the United States, significant racial and socioeconomic disparities in infant and maternal mortality parallel the limited access to paid leave by disadvantaged mothers. The purpose of this DNP project was to identify barriers to mothers reaching their breastfeeding goals and advocate for paid maternity leave within the private sector. The project is based on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ 2022 Policy Statement. It is to increase the duration of breastfeeding to two years and address the structural and social barriers that prevent women from reaching this goal. Despite the evidence, employers, especially of small businesses, identify cost as a barrier to implementing paid leave. We conducted a cost-benefit analysis of paid family and medical leave on two different sized healthcare organization models. This was incorporated into our health advocacy project, Paid Maternity Leave: A Toolkit for Businesses, conducted at the Climate, Health, and Energy Equity Lab at Vanderbilt University. Implementing a paid leave program resulted in a total annual cost per employee of $677.00 to the small business and a profit of $1,196.00 to the large business. Results supported current evidence that the lack of national paid leave systematically provides an advantage to larger businesses with more resources while smaller businesses have difficulty affording their employees paid leave. Further research on paid leave is warranted as businesses seek to better understand the return on investment and the role they can play in improving the health outcomes of our infants and mothers. The next step is to support small businesses by exploring the supplementary funding of paid leave through carbon offsets gained by limiting travel and decreasing the use of formula.