Paternity Leave: Supporting Fathers During the Postpartum Period

After the birth of a child into a family, it's usually for us to see the mother being given maternity leave for some time to recover, but the same isn't the case for the father, and it makes it seem unfair when a man isn't given paternity leave after the birth of his child. It's understandable that, in truth, women are the ones who undergo the most stress and pain during childbearing, but then the mental and physical stress men undergo during those moments also deserves for them to get some form of leave to have enough time to bond with their family and as well recover.

Here in Lagos, Nigeria, where I work, if you're a civil servant and gave birth as a woman, you're privileged to go for a six-month maternity leave to have enough time to take care of your child and as well relax and be fit enough to resume work thereafter. To be fair, civil servants are also privileged to a two-week paternity break, but it's hardly approved, and most senior offices tend to stigmatize you when you file for such.

The two weeks of paternity leave implemented by the state seem reasonable; at least within that period, such a man would have enough time to relate, help around the house in catering for the new baby to relieve his wife, and much more, but when you apply for such based on what I've seen at my place of work, our superior offices are just wicked and won't even approve it.

Sometimes I look at them and wonder if they didn't utilize the same when they were young and gave birth to their children, and now they'll only approve the maternity leave for ladies with an obvious anger on their faces, not to mention that of men's paternity leave that they'll outrightly refuse to approve, meaning you'll have no choice but to keep coming to work during the period when your wife just gave birth as a man.

I think the men also deserve better, inasmuch as it's in the civil servant right; then there's no point hungering them from getting what's their right, but then I also, to some extent, understand the plight of the senior officers who refuse, because the more teachers that went on leave will lead to having fewer teachers in the school, and some classes will most likely be empty during lecture hours due to the absence of teachers who went on leave.

I've seen this play out a time at my place of work when six female staff gave birth at almost the same time, and before you know it, they all went on maternity leave, leaving the school scanty of teachers and no one to teach students their subject. Well, I don't blame the teachers; the government should be the one to bring in more teachers to make it much more flexible for everyone.

But then regarding paternity leave, I think men deserve it and should get it, because it'll play a huge role in their family and even the job delivery of such staff, because expecting him to come to work in such a period will only lead to him not delivering his job efficiently like he would have on a normal day. We all know the birth of a child comes with some stress and sleepless nights, especially when the baby can't sleep. The father will have to stay up to cater for the child while the mother relaxes, and they can shift that responsibility till dawn.

So not giving such a man paternity leave and expecting him to come to our the next day will mean he'll be weak, sleepy, and not do a good job but to mental stress, so the paternity leave is very essential for men. Although most superior offices refuse to approve such paternity leave for me, still they try to relieve pressure on him by not expecting him to resume to work early or get angry if he's absent for a day or so.

While that just seems good, I don't think it's good enough because a leave will mean you've got the right to be away from work for a certain period, but not showing up to work without a leave, but due to an issue relating to stress from catering for your baby, you can still get one in trouble. So it's best to just let the father of the new baby take that leave and use that period to do whatever they can for both their well-being and that of their family, including the new baby.

All photos taken and edited on canva.