Pregnant Soldier Felled at Fort Hood

A pregnant soldier who had just returned from Iraq and was expected to be going out on maternity leave has been listed as one of the casualties in Thursday’s shooting at the Fort Hood military base.

According to the New York Daily News, Francheska Velez had been back in the states just three days when Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on base, killing 13. Continue reading »

Women Without Kids Want Maternity Leave Too

A survey of 2,000 women in the United Kingdom found that women who aren’t mothers want maternity leave, too.

In related news:  74 percent of women also claimed to want stretch marks and sleepless nights. Continue reading »

Mom Fired For Breastfeeding

We middle- and upper-class parents can moan (rightfully) about the pathetic state of this country’s maternity leave policies, but I suspect nothing will change until the low-wage worker is brought into the mix. After all, those with greater means  can pretty  much make things work out. We have more choices, though it doesn’t always feel that way.

Workers who don’t earn much, however, suffer the brunt of our pathetic Family and Medical Leave Act (guarantees time off; does not guarantee pay). When you  earn at or near minimum wage, is there really much of a choice than to pass the placenta and get back on the job?

This goes for breastfeeding, too. Women who don’t live near poverty can take time off, find a private room to pump, demand a private room to pump.  Or get someone to bring the baby to the office to nurse.

Bringing baby to the workplace was the strategy of Maria Chavez, a cashier a Los Angeles taqueria, who wound up getting fired for nursing. On her break. In her car.

Oh, but there’s justice at the end of this story. Continue reading »

Bouncing New Baby Inspires WNBA’s MVP

After my first baby came home, I tried to keep working my modest, 16-hour, online job.  After three days, I not only quit, I found colleagues to fill in for me during what would have been my 2-week notice.  It took me a year to get back to working–even part-time–again.

Even so, I had neither given birth (my kids are adopted) nor was my job a particularly physically draining one (teaching).  So my mind boggles at the task before WNBA’s Rookie of the Year and  Most Valuable Player, Continue reading »

Old Lady New Mom Already Back at Work

Britain’s oldest mum, Elizabeth Adeney, is making the rest of us moms look bad. After popping out a baby just last month, the 66-year-old has already returned to work.

A four-week maternity leave? Why? Continue reading »

Canadian Province’s Finance Minister Fuels the Mommy Wars

Lest we think it’s just here in the US that we tear each other to shreds over social policy, in Canada there’s been a huge controversy over Iris Evans, finance minister of the Canadian province of Alberta, making remarks that were critical of two-career families.

While answering questions after a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto, Evans said she believes good parenting means that one parent stays at home with the children while they are young, as her own children have done.

According to the CBC website, she said this: “They’ve understood perfectly well that when you’re raising children, you don’t both go off to work and leave them for somebody else to raise. This is not a statement against daycare. It’s a statement about their belief in the importance of raising children properly.”
Continue reading »

Katie Couric Goes Mama Bear at Princeton

Last weekend, Katie Couric gave the Class Day address for Princeton’s Class of 2009, and it was all very Katie, very perky and funny and frequently self-referencing — even, as she describes it on Huffington Post, “saucy and sassy.”

About three-quarters of the way through it, Couric goes all Mother Bear on the females in class, though, and starts dispensing advice about how to approach motherhood and careers.

Here are her words:

I’m sure you are all graduating with big career goals. You may also have a dream of being married and having a family, and at some point the career may take a backseat. There is no more challenging, rewarding or important job than being a mom. I just want to say this — sometimes dreams of domestic bliss are interrupted by reality. Continue reading »