Three quarters of Irish women want maternity leave extended

A survey has shown that 74 per cent of Irish women agree that maternity leave should be extended.

RollerCoaster.ie, the pregnancy, parenting and family life website has compiled data from their 400,000 Irish readers to find that almost three quarters of those questioned believed that new mothers who were on maternity leave during the pandemic lockdown should have their paid leave extended.

A recent online petition reached 28,000 signatories and the National Women’s Council of Ireland is calling for a one-off extension to maternity leave and pay, stressing that women who were on maternity leave during lockdown did not have access to the usual supports including Mother and Baby Groups, missed developmental checks and hospital appointments, all services that would have been fully accessible under usual circumstances.

This is compounded further by the childcare crisis with many fearing that some women will have to give up their jobs completely because of it.

Speaking of these results, Editor of RollerCoaster.ie Miriam Burke said, “ Maternity leave is not a holiday - it's time for bonding and an essential opportunity for accessing vital services and encouraging development with the help of experts and their 'village'.

“Bonding continued, but the usual services stopped, putting these mums and babies at a disadvantage. “Extending maternity leave is not dodging work - it's helping the mental and physical health of such special members of our community.”