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

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.

During his leave time, my spouse took our oldest child to playdates and birthday parties. He quickly became connected with our small-town network of families with kids close in age. I witnessed my spouse becoming more comfortable being the “main” parent in public, going to kid-centered community events and connecting with other parents.

Our family is still seeing the benefits of those few weeks 10 years later.

Leave for supporting parents after the birth of a child isn’t standardized or required by law in most places in the U.S. Even countries with generous paid time off for the birthing parent don’t always offer similarly generous time for the non-birthing parent.

This diversity in leave policies can make it hard to assess the impact of leave for the non-birthing parent. But existing research suggests that extended leave for birthing parents and moderate leave for non-birthing partners positively impact infant well-being and reduce postpartum mental health challenges.

Maternal and newborn health

Leave for both parents with the birth of a child can significantly benefit parental mental health overall and maternal mental health specifically. Paternity leave assists in the mother’s recovery and contributes to less of an increase in stress and depression than for mothers whose partners didn’t take leave.

One Swedish study showed that flexibility within paternal leave policies, such as allowing new dads to take intermittent time off after the birth of a child, helped reduce the incidence of maternal postpartum health complications.

Children also benefit from paternity leave. When a father takes significant leave – meaning at least two weeks – children report experiencing more father-child closeness and better communication in the relationship up to nine years later. And overall child health tends to improve when fathers take paternity leave.

When paid leave policies are available for both mothers and fathers, breastfeeding is more likely to last longer. Longer breastfeeding is strongly linked to overall infant health and decreased infant mortality.

Family balance

Allowing both parents to have sufficient time off to bond and adjust to their new roles can also have longer-term benefits within the family unit and contribute toward more equity in child rearing. Even in 2026, mothers are often considered the “default” parent, with fathers taking a more secondary role.

While fathers are more involved now than in previous generations, mothers are still more likely to be the first call from school. And even with an involved father, mothers continue to carry the invisible mental load of the family, an unseen burden of data, obligations and preemptive planning tasks. This overreliance on mothers comes with a price: Mothers report being more stressed and tired than fathers do.

As I experienced in my own family, when fathers have ample time off, it sets up the dynamic to be more balanced between parents. This helps reduce the strain on recovering mothers and redistributes some of the care work that goes into raising children.

Home economics

What’s more, paid leave policies have been shown to help families’ financial health. Pay rates during leave can vary widely depending on your company, organization or country. Without full or close to full pay, many families cannot afford to take leave.

In the U.S., for example, the Family and Medical Leave Act allows time off, but not in all circumstances, nor is that time required to be paid. Many families cannot afford to take the full allowable time off, using up sick or vacation time if available. Many parents in the U.S. end up going back to work sooner than seems healthy.

New parents in the U.S. often find themselves in an economic bind – they can’t afford to take leave, nor can they afford to rely on a single income to have a parent stay home. But many also can’t afford the childcare rates for newborns, which tend to be particularly high. National averages for infant care at childcare centers are nearly US$200 more per month than toddler care. While rates vary significantly depending on where you live and what type of care you choose, infant care remains the most expensive.

Despite the lack of a paid U.S. federal leave policy for parents, both domestic and multinational companies have noticed that their workers care about parental leave policies. Some have begun to offer leave for supporting parents in order to recruit and retain workers.

Outside the US

U.S. leave policies consistently rank at or near the bottom when compared with other similarly developed countries, like the 38 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD.

Some countries follow a “use-it-or-lose-it” model of parental leave, where fathers in particular are encouraged to take a more substantial role in childcare. Sweden and Norway, for example, earmark 90 days of leave for each parent, and it cannot be transferred to or split with the other parent. This encourages both parents to take time off.

There are many options across countries with parental leave policies. Flexibility and defined expectations seem to be key contributors to getting the most out of the parental leave that is offered.

Cultural adoption

When non-birthing parents are men, another barrier to taking leave is the perceived social acceptability within their communities. Even when paid paternity leave is available, many men struggle to take it because of how traditional gender roles and expectations of masculinity frame childcare as women’s work.

To offset these kinds of social pressures, countries like Japan and Austria offer incentives such as bonus leave time for families when fathers actually take their available leave. Germany offers a similar bonus, and it has found improved couple relationship satisfaction when fathers take more of their leave time.

Beyond improvements in maternal and infant health, both parents taking leave can create a more equitable workplace environment. Disparities and discrimination that come when only women take leave after birth can lessen when fathers and other supporting parents also take leave. Childbearing women are then less likely to be penalized, formally or informally, for taking parental leave.

Paid parental leave policies that provide leave for all parents, regardless of gender, also can help reduce structural inequality in the workplace across race and class. In the U.S., Hispanic and Black workers often have less access to paid leave policies and may experience increased pressure to return to work earlier than their white counterparts.

As more states, countries and corporations adopt more flexible and inclusive leave policies, researchers will continue to learn how parental leave benefits both parents and children. What they’ve found so far leads me to believe that, just like we’ve seen with prenatal care and early education programs, parental leave will prove to be an early investment in healthy children and families that pays dividends in the long term.