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The healthiest kids grow up with moms who have been on maternity leave for a long time
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Extended maternity leave for mothers reduces infant mortality rates by almost 15% and also improves the health of all family members.
These results were reached by researchers from the Canadian McGill University and the American University of California (Los Angeles), after conducting experiments in twenty different countries.
Without exception, all scientists who were involved in the study confirm the fact that the duration of maternity leave has a dramatic impact on the health and quality of life of the younger generation.
As stated in the information press release, maternity leave (especially if the period of maternity leave is paid) reduces the likelihood of stress in the child and parents, makes it possible to extend the period of breastfeeding, and helps to take better care of the baby's health.
By law, maternity leave is guaranteed and paid in full in almost 200 countries around the world. However, in reality, many mothers try to return to work "earlier" - and this depends on many reasons. The level of social development in the country is also of no small importance.
The highest quality maternity leave is offered to women in Canada and many European countries. However, there are also countries such as Guinea and Suriname where young mothers are deprived of any rights or guarantees at all. By the way, the United States also does not have any legislatively provided funded maternity leave.
"In our research, we focused on low- and middle-income countries. But countries with well-developed economies also have certain problems, and they can fundamentally affect the future of new generations. For example, as for the United States, we would recommend that this country pay attention to global practice and initiate the introduction of paid maternity leave for mothers or fathers," says Professor Jody Heymann, representing UCLA.
The periodical Plos Medicine published a full report on the experiment, which analyzed data on 300,000 children from twenty countries around the world. These children were born between 2000 and 2008.
The experiment demonstrated that during the period under study, according to statistics, the infant, neonatal and postnatal mortality rate was approximately 55, 31 and 23 cases per thousand surviving infants. At the same time, during each additional month of maternity leave, infant mortality decreased by almost 15%.
The results of the experiments give reason to make the following assumption: long paid maternity leave with a guarantee of the mother's return to her previous place of work allows the young mother to devote more time to herself and her baby, and to monitor the health of the family. In addition, a long period of maternity leave increases the chances of full compliance with the child's vaccination schedule, as well as timely consultation with a doctor in case of illness.
“The healthiest children were recorded in countries where paid maternity leave by law lasts more than 12 weeks,” sums up the results Dr. Arjit Nandy (McGill University).