Generous paternal leave policies improve maternal and newborn health, family finances and workplace equality

By Megan Kuykendoll, Instructor of Family Science and Social Work, Miami University

When our second child was born, my spouse had several weeks of paternity leave under his parental leave policy at work.

I’m a certified family life educator, and parental leave comes up regularly in my teaching and community work. So I was aware of the benefits his leave could have for our family – in theory.

Still, I could not have imagined how significantly his leave would end up affecting our family and our connections with community.

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