Paid Maternity Leave Coming to the US?

Last week, I read that President Obama is trying to promote paid maternity leave. I support this idea 100% as a mother that had to take non-paid leave to take care of her baby. I had to get back to work when my baby was only 10 weeks old. This was one of the most difficult times of my life. I always wanted to get back to work after having a baby, but it was very sad to be away from her. I came back to work with my breast pump and thanks to a fairly new policy that allows women to pump several times a week, I was not in trouble for taking a 15 minute break every 3 hours. I'm lucky that I have a private office where I could have privacy and I also had a boss that was flexible about it. For those that don't know, the law also allows women to request a clean place to pump. Employers must provide a place other than a bathroom for nursing moms. 

I am amazed to see the amount of negative posts about moms getting paid during maternity leave. Thanks to the Family Medical Leave Act, employers should keep your job (without pay) open for 12 weeks. I only learned about this when it was my turn to stay home. It was tight even after saving and planning for my unpaid leave. It didn't help that my husband lost his job when my daughter was only 2 weeks old. Luckily, I had the short term disability insurance (6 weeks for a natural birth, 8 weeks for a c-section) and that was the only income that I got. Maternity leave is not a nice vacation. It is physical recovery for the mother sometimes from a surgery (c-section).  Don't forget about the newborn that requires constant attention and feeding. Before I was a mom, I thought that while the baby slept I could catch up on my reading. I had no idea what it was like to take care of a baby. 

The United States is the only developed Country that has a non paid maternity leave. Even in "poor" Countries like Colombia women get paid leave. I don't want people live off the system. Most people are afraid of those who will start having babies non stop to get paid leave. I'm sure there is a way to prevent; maybe not allowing new hires to take a paid leave or limit it to one paid leave every few years or even just increase the number of weeks that the short term disability insurance provides. It is hard enough for new moms to worry about how to take care of another person. We should not have to worry about how to pay the rent or take care of our basic needs when all of our time and attention should be given to our baby. I hope that this idea becomes a reality soon and that new moms can benefit from it.