Why maternity leave is shrinking

Most pregnant women work until one month before they give birth — and some work right up until their delivery — but that wasn’t always the case.

More women are working further into their pregnancy than at any time in the last half-century, according to data released earlier this month by the Pew Research Center. In the early 1960s, 65% of working women who were pregnant with their first child stopped working more than a month before the birth, while just about a third (35%) continued working into their final month. By the late 2000s, that trend had completely reversed: Nearly 20% of women stopped working before then, while 80% continued in the workplace until within one month of their first birth. And, of those, 87% have a bachelor’s degree or higher (versus 71% with some college and 50% high school graduates and 28% with less than high school).

The issue has received national attention in recent months. Last month, in the Supreme Court case “Peggy Young v. United Parcel Service” — in which a pregnant UPS employee was suspended without pay or insurance because she couldn't lift more than 20 pounds — the judges ruled in favor of the woman. Young is now free to pursue her discrimination case against UPS, which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va. has previously blocked. At that time, UPS said it complied with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, which states pregnant women shall be treated the same for all employment-related purposes.

High blood pressure would be a clear reason for a pregnant woman to reduce her schedule or take time off, says Jeanne Conry, a physician and immediate past president of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. But many women often work around other discomforts, like back pain, she says. “We tell women not to lift big boxes,” she says. “Our nurses work throughout pregnancy. They move patients, but they move patients with assistance.” Women work longer due to financial needs, career goals and camaraderie in the workplace, she says. Conry herself went into labor during work with her first child and second child arrived on Martin Luther King Jr. Day when she had the day off. “I never thought of not working,” she adds.

Women are also returning to work much sooner after their first birth than in previous decades, Pew found. Among women who worked during their pregnancy and had their first child in the early 1960s, only 21% had returned to work six months after their child’s birth. Among those who had their first birth between 2005 and 2007, however, 73% were back at work within that time frame. U.S. law doesn't require employers to offer paid maternity leave although companies are mandated to offer 12 weeks unpaid leave for new mothers. In contrast, the U.K. offers 280 days of paid maternity and paternity leave. Finland offers 105 days of paid maternity leave and 158 days of parental leave that can be shared.

Despite U.S. law not requiring paid maternity leave, new mothers who worked during their pregnancy are more likely than new mothers in the 1970s and 1980s to use some form of paid leave — which consists largely of maternity leave, but also includes sick and vacation leave, and personal days — during pregnancy or in the 12 weeks after the birth, and also more likely to take unpaid leave: In the late 2000s, 51% of these women used paid leave versus just 37% in the early 1980s. And 42% of women who had their first child between 2006 and 2008 used unpaid leave — the kind Young received from UPS — up from 34% in the 1970s. While U.S. law mandates no paid leave, it does require 12 weeks of protected leave to eligible employees.