MaShell, a Pennsylvania mom, says when we don’t support moms, we are creating big gaps in our community. She’s making these absences visible.
When MaShell had her second child, she had saved up all her PTO. She stayed at work until two days before giving birth and had her daughter at home. Her employer–a small reproductive clinic in Pittsburgh– didn’t offer paid leave, but MaShell figured her plan, while a little tenuous, would work.
MaShell’s partner worked at Amazon and, since it was the pandemic, had been told by MaShell’s OBGYN that he should request to work not near others so as not to risk bringing COVID back to the newborn.
That request was honored for two days, and then he was laid off.
Mother Forward 