As the Cayman Compass looked into the issue of the challenges of the limited maternity leave offered here, mothers openly shared the struggles they have encountered.
From postpartum issues to job pressures while having to pump milk, these mothers paint a picture of the reality of motherhood in a working world.
For mums like Natalie Baldwin, being able to have that extra time with her babies and for herself is key to their health.
Baldwin, originally from Texas, is a mother of two.
She shared that she is seven months postpartum with her second child.
“I was only able to take three months of maternity leave. To me it was difficult to go back to work but I knew it was best. I would love if we could have more time for paid maternity leave… There are many struggles new moms face and three months sometimes isn’t enough. Our bodies are still healing from giving birth,” she told the Compass via email.
Postpartum depression, she said, is also very common and still not discussed.
“I believe if new moms had more time to form the attachment with their child and to recover, [it] will help with PPD. I have PPD and had it with my first. I’m a big advocate for mental health and discussing these issues. To be clear, the Civil Service gives you three months paid and opts you for an additional three months unpaid. I could only do the three months because financially we couldn’t afford unpaid, especially with the cost of living rising in Cayman,” she said.
Childcare challenges
This is one of the issues the Parental Entitlements Working Group raised – the disparity in leave between the public and private sector.
Bethany Ebanks-Pacheco, executive member of the group, is hopeful their recommendations to remove that gap in maternity leave is addressed as well as the challenges with early childhood education.
“We are not preparing the future generations the way that we should. The addition of this layer, of no space in preschools, will eventually cause many children to need early intervention to bring them up to speed (if possible), which just continues along their life,” she said.
Cyndi Glasgow, who gave birth to her son five years ago, reflected on her experience as a new mother, saying her maternity leave “was necessary, comforting, tiring and possessed a series of learning curves”.
She received three months maternity leave and she said she was happy to be home with her son watching him grow, and giving him the best care he could receive.
“I was most grateful for these first weeks with my little one and ticking off our many milestones along the way. Returning to work and leaving my three-month-old in the care of someone else while he was so vulnerable, was challenging; I cried,” she said in an email.
Glasgow said after returning to work, she was able to identify a vacant private room which she used to pump breastmilk between clients, calls and meetings.
“Sometimes I pumped at my desk while sending emails because getting up just wasn’t an option due to my work load. Most times I used my lunch time to rush home and breastfeed my child, while hurriedly stuffing down some lunch as I breastfed and before having to return to work. A Cayman where this is not a reality for so many, would be a dream come true,” she said.
A change in legislation for longer parental leave would equate to a healthy and happier family unit and an unrushed transition and recovery, she added.
“Many times we undermine how many changes the body and mind can go through to bring forth life or when taking on guardianship. We also undermine the amount of time it truly takes for the body to heal after birth, and cope with the changes, whether canal or caesarean birth; noting that caesarean birth is actually major abdominal surgery,” she added.
Mums are struggling
Ariel Grace, a mother of two, shared that her Cayman maternity leave experience was “expedited and stressful, to say the least”.
“I had a beautiful straightforward birth, but [there was] almost no support postpartum as my husband was only allocated five paternity leave days and I had no extended family or support system in Cayman. Being new to the island, I hadn’t worked enough hours during my pregnancy to receive any financial maternity leave benefits from the yoga studio I was teaching at. I was then pressured by that yoga studio to come back to work less than two months postpartum and, in retrospect, this was insanely premature,” she wrote in an email.
She said her newborn baby was still nursing 24/7 and she was trying to juggle the pressure of having him fed and cared for while also trying to keep her job and progress in her profession.
“Leaving my baby for hours on end while I worked, while still trying to exclusively breastfeed, led me to multiple excruciating bouts of mastitis [infection in breast tissue] and absolute mental burnout,” Grace said.
“It was a perfect storm that led to postpartum anxiety which drained me mentally, physically and emotionally, leading me to seek professional mental health help. It was so challenging to enjoy what should’ve been a blissful new baby experience, with the added pressure of having to return to work too soon and help contribute financially to my household,” she said.
Grace added that she was not alone in her maternity leave experience since, as a pre- and postnatal Pilates instructor and birth doula in Cayman, she saw the mums she worked with every day dealing with the same challenges.
“Improved parental leave policies would ensure that new mamas and babies in Cayman can thrive physically, emotionally and financially in the postpartum period, and for life,” she added.
Her first maternity leave, in Canada, was 18 months long, partially paid, and with shared leave between mum and dad to promote equality in parenting.
“My Cayman maternity leave was an absolute joke, only a few weeks long, completely unpaid, and my husband was granted five days off work to support me and our new baby. These five days were considered generous, as there are currently no statutory paternity leave policies in effect for dads,” she said.
The disparity between her two maternity leave experiences, Grace said, was stark.
“I hope for this parental leave improvement, not just for myself, but for future generations of mothers and babies in Cayman to come,” she added.
Related Videos
