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When my son was born three years ago, I hobbled together a combination of sick leave, vacation time and unpaid leave in order to take four months off.  It was a challenge both financially and emotionally for all of us.  

Even with a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby, I worried throughout my leave about what impact this time would have on our family.  Could we afford the unpaid leave coupled with our large COBRA payment to maintain our health insurance during that time?

In some ways our family was lucky - I was able to take four months off.  Now as I work with expectant families as a breastfeeding educator, I hear some women saying they will go back to work after 6 weeks or earlier.  One mom of twins told me she planned to only take 6 weeks off and I worried about her health and recovery as much as I worried about her babies.  What if they came early and needed special care?  We don't know what life will bring our way and even the most prepared of us can't anticipate everything.  Let's help make life a little easier for families by supporting Paid Family Leave!

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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