Many pregnant women don't use leave benefit

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Apr 9, 2006 | by FROM STAFF REPORTS

Only one in three working women who qualify for California's pregnancy leave program take advantage of the benefit, and most do so out of medical necessity, according to a University of California, Berkeley, study.

California is one of only five states that offer paid pregnancy leave, funded through employee payroll deductions.

Women can receive up to four weeks of paid leave before giving birth. The time off cannot be used for maternity leave.

All public and private employers in the state with five or more employees must offer the benefit. Payments in 2003 averaged $293 a week.

UC Berkeley researchers interviewed 1,214 women in Southern California who had recently given birth about the benefit.

Slightly more than half worked up until the time of delivery, and only 32 percent took pregnancy leave. Nine percent quit their jobs before giving birth.

"What struck us is that so few women do think about taking leave," said Sylvia Guendelman, a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and lead author of the study, in a statement.

The women who took the pregnancy leave did so because of stress, tiredness, medical conditions or the need to mother young children already in the house. Women who stayed at work were more likely to have a post-graduate education and have a sense of job fulfillment, according to the study, which was published in the Maternal and Child Health Journal.