Does Maternity Leave Make Working Moms "Better"?

In many families, moms who work a full-time job are common – and not all moms are lucky enough to get maternity leave. With this relatively new twist in family dynamic, researchers are now looking at whether being a stay-at-home mom is actually “better” for children.

A new demographic analysis from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) investigated the impact of working mothers on both their own happiness and that of the child. Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s Study on Early Child Care, they looked at issues like mental health, maternal health, parental stress and parenting quality, as measured against working hours of moms, job flexibility, stress levels, depression symptoms and family wellness.

The study showed that women with 3-month-old babies who needed to work full-time had higher instances of personal stress, family stress and depression, and were generally in poorer health overall, when compared against stay-at-home moms or those on maternity leave.

It’s unsurprising that the majority of these factors did not change when measured again at 6 months, but what is surprising is that the measure of parental quality did not experience a related drop. The study showed that in the first 4-and-a-half years of their child’s life, mothers who returned to work after 6 months actually noticed a drop in their level of parenting stress.

Why the magic number of 4.5 years? This was speculated to be the amount of time needed for mothers to truly adjust to a life that combines parenting and working. Once they make this transition, they are happier and as a result, their family is happier overall.

So what does this have to do with maternity leave? Well, the study show that a maternity leave of a minimum of 6 months gives mothers the best opportunity to get comfortable in their roles as parents while also preparing to integrate smoothly back into the workforce.

A study like this could be integral in forming new maternity leave laws or recommendations. Let us know what you think – what is the ideal combination for working and parenting?