Shared Parental Leave evaluation: What are the health impacts of Shared Parental Leave?

By Ros Bragg, Director

Blog 4 of 5.

Maternity leave and pay are health and safety provisions intended to support the mother to recover from the birth and bond with the baby. Maternity leave is also a key measure to support breastfeeding.?The introduction of Shared Parental Leave has the potential to impact on the duration of leave taken by both parents so it is disappointing that the recent?evaluation of Shared Parental Leave?did not touch on these questions.

Women’s bodies take six months to recover from childbirth.??One in three UK women give birth by caesarean, and these women face further restricted activities than women who deliver vaginally. All women are advised to rest and recover at home for at least six weeks after the birth, with caesarean delivering mothers prohibited from driving and discouraged from most exercise. This raises questions about the impact of the change in leave arrangements on women’s physical recovery from the birth.?Did recovering from the birth affect women’s decisions about sharing leave??If so, what was the impact??Were the impacts different for mothers in more physically demanding roles than those in office-based or home-based roles?

Perinatal ill-health remains common and suicide is the leading cause of death for mothers in their child’s first year.?Despite this, the mental health impacts of changes in leave arrangements were not investigated in the evaluation.?Did women feel under pressure to return to work earlier than they would wish??Did sharing leave exacerbate or reduce stress? Does early return to work have a protective effect for some women with mental ill-health??

The?NHS recommends?that all babies are exclusively breastfed for the first six months of their life, and from six months babies should start eating solid foods as well as being breastfed for up to two years or longer.?This is based on?World Health Organisation?guidance. There is no right to?breastfeeding breaks?and facilities in the UK?so the return to work is a key point for women to cease breastfeeding.??Earlier research?with a small sample of parents found that a quarter of those parents did not intend to take Shared Parental leave because of the potential negative impact on breastfeeding.

This evidence points to the importance of breastfeeding for the health of mothers and babies, the poor legal protections for women who wish to breastfeed on return to work and that at least some parents choose not to take Shared Parental Leave on this basis.?Despite this, the evaluation contains only passing reference to breastfeeding.??

There are questions about breastfeeding which warrant investigation.?To what degree was breastfeeding a factor in women choosing not to transfer leave??Did women feel compelled to cease breastfeeding earlier than they wanted in order to give their partner access to leave??Did employer support for breastfeeding on return to work make a difference to women’s decisions about sharing leave?

It is disappointing that the evaluation of Shared Parental Leave did not explore the health dimension of Shared Parental Leave.?While gender equality and parental choice are valuable principles, protecting the health and wellbeing of mothers, partners and babies should be a primary concern in the design of maternity, paternity and parents leave frameworks.?Maternity Action has proposed an?alternative approach?which would better protect the health and wellbeing of parents and babies, promote more equitable care of children and enable all families to access leave entitlements, irrespective of income and employment status.

Maternity Action has prepared a?briefing?analysing the Shared Parental Leave evaluation.?Previous blogs explored take-up rates, the demographics of those taking leave, and the barriers and enablers of leave.?A subsequent blog will look at the health dimension of the evaluation and the Government response.

Read blog 1 in this series ‘Shared Parental Leave evaluation: What is the take-up of Shared Parental Leave?‘.

Read blog 2 in this series ‘Shared Parental Leave evaluation: Who is taking Shared Parental Leave?’.

Read blog 3 in this series ‘Shared Parental Leave evaluation: What are the barriers and enablers for taking leave?‘.