Call for parental leave changes to ease burden for mums of premmie babies

Mothers of preterm babies have higher out-of-pocket health costs, spend longer out of the workforce and earn less money for up to five years.

Those are the findings of research published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health based on figures from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children and administrative data.

The research found mothers whose babies were born full term went back to work after an average of 1.9 years, while mothers of preterm babies delayed their return to work by almost a year longer, after adjusting for age, education attainment and marital status.

Mothers of preterm babies returned to work after an average of 2.8 years, regardless of whether the baby was born before 32 weeks or between 32 and 36 weeks.

Co-author Haylee Fox, a PhD candidate at James Cook University, said the findings showed existing parental leave policy was inadequate for mothers of preterm babies. The government’s paid parental leave scheme covers 18 weeks, while employers are required to hold a job open for 12 months.

“If the baby requires additional care or additional access to the health system, if they need to go to appointments or for therapy, it would be hard for a mother with a newborn baby to return to work within 18 weeks,” Ms Fox said.

A preterm baby has a corrected age based on its due date – so a baby born two months premature has a corrected age of four months when it is six months old. Preterm babies may have ongoing disabilities or health care needs.

But if a mother is not ready to return to work after 12 months, she could lose the job and eligibility to paid parental leave for the next baby.

The research found mothers of preterm babies had median earnings below their counterparts who carried their babies to term, until the child was four or five. This applied to both full-time and part-time work but not to casual employment.