Sweden finds easy way to boost a mother’s health: it involves fathers

The weeks after a mother gives birth are a universally vulnerable period. She is recovering physically and mentally, while dealing with sleep deprivation, round-the-clock caregiving and possibly breast-feeding. Yet after a day or a few days in the hospital, she often doesn't see a doctor for six weeks.

A new study suggests a way to make a significant difference in mothers' postpartum health: Give the other parent paid leave, and the flexibility to use it on days the mother needs extra support, even if it just means a couple of days at home.

Giving fathers flexible access to parental leave can make a big difference, study finds.

The researchers, Maya Rossin-Slater and Petra Persson, economists at Stanford, studied the effects of a 2012 Swedish law that allows fathers to take up to 30 days, as needed, in the year after a birth, while the mother is still on leave. In the first six months postpartum, there was a 26 per cent decrease in anti-anxiety prescriptions compared with mothers who gave birth just before the policy went into effect. There was a 14 per cent reduction in hospitalizations or visits to a specialist and an 11 per cent decrease in antibiotic prescriptions.

"A lot of focus has been on what we can do in the hospital immediately following childbirth, but less on mothers' home environment, which is where the vast majority of women spend most of their postpartum time," Rossin-Slater said. "What we're saying is one important component of that home environment is the presence of the father or another adult caretaker."

The United States is the only rich country with no mandated paid leave. American maternal mortality — which includes childbirth-related deaths in the year after birth — has increased 50 per cent in a generation, and there is a growing movement to help mothers during this critical period.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists last year issued new guidelines for more involved postpartum health care. On the campaign trail, many Democratic presidential candidates have pushed for paid leave and for improving maternal health care.

At the same time, the Labour Department recently indicated that it would review the Family and Medical Leave Act, in part to reduce "burdens on employers." The law gives American workers who meet certain qualifications 12 weeks of unpaid leave. James Sherk, a labour adviser to President Donald Trump, has argued that elements of the act are burdensome and abused by workers.

The new study shows how paid time off for family members can improve care for both babies and mothers, experts who were not involved with the research said.

The key in Sweden was that the policy allowed fathers to take intermittent, unplanned days of paid leave. The researchers — who used Sweden's vast administrative data, including birth records, leave claims and medical records — were able to see that fathers often used their leave on days that mothers sought health care. The fathers' presence could have averted the need for more serious medical care, such as by enabling mothers to sleep, seek preventive care or get antibiotics early in an infection, they said.

Sweden's paid parental leave policy is among the most generous of any country. It gives new parents 16 months of leave to divide between them, which can be used until the child is 12 or to work part time.

Yet even a few days of paternity leave can make a large difference for mothers' postpartum health, the Swedish study shows. The typical father in Sweden took only a couple of extra days. It wasn't the length that seemed to matter most, but his flexibility to take time when the mother needed it.

The second person at home need not be a father — it could be a relative or a same-sex parent, for example. In Sweden, the study pointed to the benefits of grandparent support.

New York Times

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