Answer: In what ways could the U.S. look abroad for policies and programs to better support working families through childcare, paid leave, etc.?

For context, this is a question I answered on Quora

Several come to mind, but I’ll focus my answer on one concession to labor that would make the next generation better off starting in infancy and one which most states sorely lack: universal paid maternity leave. This policy is usually framed as a benefit for women and expecting mothers but it really ought to be discussed with reference to how its presence or absence will impact the next generation. The first few months of a child’s life are when they are the most vulnerable to their surroundings and having a mother who has to immediately return to work, instead of nursing her baby, due to financial constraints can set them up for worse life outcomes and choices down the road physically and psychologically. While the evidence isn’t conclusive it is squarely on the side of the theory that a lack of paid maternity leave is a net harm to the children of the mothers it affects.

A quantitative research investigation into how paid or unpaid maternal leave impacts toddler development, specifically language and socioemotional outcomes at 24-36 month across mother–child dyads (n = 328) found that Paid leave was associated with significantly higher toddler language scores, independent of family income or socioeconomic status (β=0.15, p<.01, adjusted R2=.17). Paid leave also correlated with fewer infant behavior problems, but this effect was statistically significant only among mothers with lower educational attainment equivalent to high school diploma or GED (β=−.91, p=.02).

A cross-sectional study conducted among 80 families in NYC between May 2018 and December 2019 that measured infant brain activity via electroencephalography and collected data on leave status, maternal stress and parent–infant interactions found that mothers with paid leave were 7.4x more likely to have infants showing EEG profiles characterized by increased higher-Hz power (95% CI, 1.9-36.9) indicating more mature pattern of brain activation at 3 months compared to infants of mothers without paid leave. This association was significant even after controlling for family income and parent–child interactions.

A quasi-experimental study conducted in Denmark that drew on adolescent behavioral and emotional data for children born before and after the country extended paid parental leave from 24 to 46 weeks found that the adolescents of mothers who would have otherwise taken the shorter leave had measurable improvements in well being, conscientiousness and emotional stability. Each additional month of leave increased well-being, conscientiousness, and emotional stability by 6.0%, 6.5%, and 5.6%, respectively in the younger cohort born after the paid paternal leave reform compared to the older cohort born before the paid paternal leave reform. Adolescents born after the reform also skipped school less frequently and had a lower risk of having psychiatric diagnoses.

Another quasi-experimental study that collected data in 29 countries between 1990 and 2019 using the Demographic and Health Survey and Women, Business and the Law 2021 file released by the World Bank (n = 1 million) found that each additional week of paid maternity leave is associated with an increase of approximately 0.007 years in educational attainment and an increase of 0.056 cm in adult height for adults exposed to the policy as infants.

A cross sectional study that used data from the Listening to Mothers III, a national survey (n = 2,400) to assess the association between paid maternity leave and outcomes related to infant and maternal health at 21 months postpartum found that women who had paid leave had a 47% lower risk of their infant being re-hospitalized compared to women who received unpaid or no leave.

Women who received paid leave also had a 51% reduced risk of re-hospitalization themselves and were almost twice as likely to report good exercise habits and stress management. Women who get paid maternity leave are also more likely to breastfeed which helps infants form a healthy gut microbiome that becomes the basis for their innate immune system. This is probably why the infants of mothers without paid maternity leave are re-hospitalized more frequently as they are healthier at baseline from consuming breast milk instead of the added sugar garbage that passes as formula.