Beeliar mums want more than 14 weeks

by Tonya Lamatoa

May 8, 2008

MOTHERS from the Beeliar playgroup want to be home with their babies as long as possible and think maternity leave for working mums should be much longer than the proposed 14 weeks.

A lobby group called Public Health Associations has proposed to the Rudd government a 14-week maternity leave period.

However, Beelia playgroup client Leah Haddow said she was not going back to work and that her 16-week-old son, Joel, deserved more than 14 weeks with his mum. But she didn’t reckon the taxpayer or businesses should have to fund that.

 “You could add a maternity leave amount to your superannuation and then when you have maternity leave you can get it back,” Leah suggested. “It’s a personal choice, not a community choice to have children.”

Ilonka Heinzle, another mum who uses the playgroup, instead said businesses themselves should cough up for more than 14 weeks.

“That’s way too short,” said Ms Heinzle, who has two young children aged four and two, and a one-month-old baby. “If businesses want people back at work then they should fund maternity leave.

“I believe there should be at least six months paid maternity leave.”

Ms Heinzle said mothers needed bonding time with their babies, and time to get back together emotionally because most bubs were not sleeping through the night at 14 weeks of age.

Karla Webb went back to work when her daughter was four months old. Ms Webb’s mother looked after her granddaughter until the grandmother fell sick. So, at eight months of age, Ms Webb’s baby had to go into day-care.

“My daughter was hospitalised five times and I had to take off time every two weeks,” she said at the Beeliar centre. “Twelve months is more realistic because babies have a better immune system by then.”

By comparison with Australia, women in the Congo and India get 15 weeks maternity leave. In Sweden, women get 16 months maternity leave.