Maternity Leave

First, I'd like to start off by clarifying that this is not a pregnancy announcement. Actually, I'd like to rant a bit about how ridiculous the American system for maternity/paternity leave is.
According to a recent survey done by the United Nation's labor agency, only three out of the 185 countries it has data for do not supply cash benefits to women during maternity leave. One of these exceptions is the United States. In fact, the US is doing worse than Bangladesh, China, Iran, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Writer Claire Zillman for Fortune, a daily online newspaper written by and for Fortune 500 companies, says that women, "have the right to 12 weeks of leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. But that leave isn’t paid. And the law only applies to employees who have worked for at least 12 months at a company with at least 50 employees."
So, if she hasn't worked at a company for more than a year, or if she works with a small business, a new mother isn't entitled to anything. Even if she is allowed the twelve weeks, she probably isn't going to get paid. This means that in families where the budget is tight, a newborn is likely separated from its mother during the day before reaching three months of age because momma had to head back to work. There are dozens of research endeavors led by hundreds of psychologists which suggest that babies need as much time bonding with both parents as possible. If a new mother decides to neglect finances for the good of her child's growth, it can often send the family into poverty. Zillman writes, "The Department of Labor survey found that about 15% of employees who were not paid or received partial pay while on leave turned to public assistance for help."
If you think that's bad (and I really hope you do) here's what's going on with paternity leave. According to Forbes writer Ana Swanson, 81 out of 185 countries extend some sort of paid leave for fathers. The US is not one of these.
Clearly, there are a lot of issues going on here. There needs to be greater assistance for new parents who are simply trying to raise their children. And for those who consider such an idea unfeasible, here's a little infographic to help explain just how far behind the "land of the free" is: