I have always wondered why it is only the mother of a baby who gets what we call maternity leave, if the mother of a newborn baby can be given a maternity leave, why can’t the father of the newborn also be given something like paternity leave. This thought has kept me preoccupied a couple of times in the past, and that is because no matter how hard I think about it, i just can’t wrap my head around it to figure out why it’s that way, this is just an injustice to every father out there…
If a woman can get a maternity leave, then a man who happens to be the father of the child should also be given a paternity leave, this way it will be easier for both the parents of the baby and the baby itself to establish a strong bond, the mother would be able to recuperate quickly while the child would also get to bond with its father quickly and easily…
I am sure we all know how strong and special the bond between a mother and her child is, the reason behind this has been spelt out clearly, mothers get to spend more time with their child both before and after birth, fathers are only liable to spend little time with them for many reasons. Fathers have to go to work daily to make a living for the family, he has limited time to spend with his wife and baby…
Women are given extra care and attention when their due date is near, especially when they are heavy and are some weeks or a couple of months away from delivery, even in this state husbands don’t get granted leaves to go take care of their wife, families are either side are mostly called to stay home with the heavy mothers many times, incase they get into labor or are in need of special care…
In Nigeria, the rate of babies born in the absence of their father is very high, compared to those born with their father helping their mother in the labor room. Most times husbands are mostly called from the office to come to the hospital when their wife goes into labor, only those that are out of the country or state miss their baby’s birth…
A woman carries the baby in her womb for nine month, delivers the baby in pains, breastfeeds the baby for months while taking care of him or her for months, the only thing the father does is to check the baby and the mother before he goes to work and when he returns, can you see why every child shares a stronger bond with their mother. This is not jazz, it is because we grew up seeing more of our mothers face, if we had seen more of our fathers face after birth, then things could have been different and more beautiful, but the truth is that our fathers aren’t at fault, their work place and boss should be blamed for not giving paternity leave to the them…
I think fathers also deserve something called paternity leave, this way they will be able to help the new mother(their wife) and also get to establish a strong bond with their child in the long run, smooth and easy. The absence of paternity leave is the main reason why every child bonds more with their mother, they find it easier to communicate with their mother than their father and that is because he is not always around…
In summary, working shouldn’t be everything, sometimes we need to do some things differently, we need to change our normal ways, and that should start with something like paternity leave for fathers, this way they will bond more with their child after birth…
In conclusion, i believe if fathers are given paternity leave to take care of their child and wife they will be more comfortable and less stressed about the fact that their child(ren) would have a stronger and better relationship with their mother than them, which is why i think this is compulsory and important…
THANKS FOR READING…