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A waiting game for expectant fathers in Spain, with paternity leave about to rise
Sarah H., 33 years old, and Alvaro R., 34, living on a countdown. Celebrate each morning that you wake up without having given birth to her second baby, a girl, because it’s supposed to be a little closer to the longed-for goal: to cross the Rubicon temporary January 1, 2020, and with him, to gain four more weeks of paternity leave. “I have to endure 37 hours,” jokes Sara at the time of the interview, at 11 in the morning of 30 December. “As born on the 31st, it will give me a lot of anger,” he admits.
This pregnant woman, who works in product development in a multinational fmcg, is just in the New Year. But being your second birth, you have been told that it would be normal to adelantase a few days. When he was born his eldest son, a year ago, and 11 months, the father only had four weeks of leave. In July of 2018 was extended to five weeks, and from the past month of April, at eight. Workers who are parents in 2020 will have 12 weeks —an expansion that will cost 336 million euros more to the State—, and in 2021, it will reach parity with the 16 weeks of maternity leave.
“The month I spent with the first I was made very short. When I returned I had the impression that it was still missing in the house”, recalls Alvaro. “I’m very excited, eager to enjoy the family life and being with the greater,” says the journalist. “As he by his schedule becomes too late, the idea of being left alone with a newborn and a child is still very small you makes me lasts, with dinners and baths,” admits his partner. Therefore, plan, in principle, enjoy their respective permissions at the same time, and not just the first four weeks mandatory by law. “If I see that I hack well, just like we changed,” he says, as the eight remaining weeks can be split during the next 12 months of the birth.
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“Enjoy the baby”
Manuela Sayad, 39, and Ivan Acebes, 41, are also in the chapel, although with a few more days of margin: it comes out of accounts of his first child on the 11th of January. “We prefer to have 12 weeks of leave to extend the time before you have to go to child care,” explains this pregnant, who works in Human Resources at a security company. “For me, the more days the better, to form a team and above all, to enjoy this stage of their baby”, emphasises Acebes.
Administrative work in a construction company, don’t think you have any problem in your company to take your 12 weeks of leave, if the baby is not passing. Although known to men of their environment, expressing fear of missing so much time, he has no doubt: “belongs to Me and I’m going to enjoy it. What I’m not going to do is remove hours to be with my son for the company.” Sayago, which of course has to process many of these permissions, says that in his company, very masculinizada, all you who are parents, take the permission. “Before, yes there was some fear, but now has changed a lot,” he says.
it is Precisely with the aim of encouraging men to take on their permissions, these are paid at 100% and non-transferable: if the father does not enjoy it, it may not be assigned to the mother, but that is lost. To view the latest statistics of the Ministry of Labour, works: until September 2019, there had been 120.973 maternity benefits and 150.750 of paternity, a difference that, according to UGT, can be attributed to the fact that they have higher rates of employment and occupation, reports Europa Press.
however, in some sectors, “perhaps for the enterprise culture, it is not so easy,” says Alvaro R. “A friend of mine who works in a large study of lawyers has told me that nor is there taken the 12 weeks.”
The difficulty of maintaining breastfeeding
“Although the parents is unfair not to be able to enjoy so much time, I would prefer that lengthened maternity leave to at least six months, to give the time of exclusive breastfeeding recommended by the who,” says Manuela Lisboa. This pregnant highlights the contradiction between the recommendations of the health authorities, including the Spanish, and the reality: that the maternity leave, even accumulating in weeks the hours of feeding, is short.
“My wife kept breastfeeding up to the year, but it was almost heroic,” recalls Alvaro R. “At first, I thought that it was important to match the permissions, for not penalizing the woman to have a floor longer. But it is true that breastfeeding, maternity leave is short. Should be extended until at least six months”, matches Sayago.
