Does anywhere actually have paid maternity leave?

My last U. did. And I had about 6 months of sick leave in the bank. I dream about that now.

There are lots of memos each year out of the faculty senate here that say the lack of maternity leave and no childcare facilities is bad for recruiting, and an embarrassment to the fact that this religious institution should be at the forefront of supporting families.

I am feeling much more like myself now

Oh, that's good to read.

And don't underestimate what you've been through - the fact that some women have to stay in bed for weeks if not months still doesn't make what you went through any more fun and easy, IMHO.

Does anywhere actually have paid maternity leave?

I'm not sure I understand. In Israel, our equivalent of social security (I think that's what it is - it has the same name, translated literally, but not exactly the same functions as yours, as little as I could understand from what's going on in the USA) covers 2/3rds (IIRC) of a new mom's salary, so she gets a maternity leave. It used to be for 12 weeks, but 1.5 years ago (just in time for my friend L's baby H's birth, so I remember the date) they changed it to 14 weeks.

I got 2 weeks of paid leave (it was under the short term disability) after I had exhausted all my vacation/sick time. When DH first started at Nationwide, they still had honest-to-goodness maternity leave. You could get nearly six months paid (at a reduced level). They stopped it soon after that, though.

I think my company has both paid maternity and paternity leave.

Oh, and the second half of those 14 weeks can be traded with a paternity leave (as in, the mother gets 7 weeks, and upon request and feeling lotsa forms and stuff, she returns to work, and the father gets the following 7 weeks).

I'm not sure I understand.

The federal law here only says that a workplace can't discriminate against a woman taking a leave of absence to have a baby, and that she has to have a job to come back to. But there are rules about how long one can take off, and the employer doesn't have to pay her salary.

The US Supreme Court is, in fact, hearing arguments in a maternity leave case today or tomorrow (it's about whether the time a mother took off to have her child should/should not be counted when considering seniority and pensions back when it wasn't illegal to discriminate against women taking time off to have a baby).

You need a comfy couch in your office, Gud. Please be safe.

I did finally make it home last night. The route I took was blocked off due to an accident so I had to find my way home via backroads. I got one wheel in a ditch after sliding on some ice, but not bad enough to get my little Honda stuck. It probably took about a half hour to get within a couple of miles of my house and then about an hour to navigate a way to actually get there.

Ugh, Gud. Glad you made it safe.

You need a comfy couch in your office, Gud.

Won't that be just as dangerous what with Gud trying to flip over the couch?

Congrats on the impending Sparkler or Sparklette!

Gud, glad you made it home OK!