It is something new mothers have always dreamed about: having their husbands stay home and help them take care of the new baby. For many years this has been just a dream. First, society has only recently begun to value how important it is for a father to bond with his new infant, and secondly, employers were rarely sympathetic to the occasional father who was vocal about their need to stay home and support their wives and babies.

Mark Hackett, an attorney with the Davis Wright Tremaine Law Firm in Portland, Ore., specializes in employment law. He feels there is still a stigma attached to fathers taking extended leave that will only disappear if more fathers take advantage of paternity leave or the Family Medical Leave Act. "Most fathers remain hesitant to take a full 12 weeks of family leave to stay home with their newborn child, even when a steady income is not an issue," Hackett says. "Unfortunately, a double standard often still applies when it comes to parenting. Although fathers have joined mothers in the delivery room, caring for a newborn is still viewed primarily as the mother's responsibility. While no one questions a mother who takes 12 weeks of parental leave, a father who takes more than a few days of parental leave is often viewed as less committed to his job than his fellow employees. Until fathers regularly take extended parental leave, this stigma is unlikely to go away."

The Family and Medical Leave Act, enacted in 1993, provides employees with up to 12 work weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave a year, to deal with their own serious health condition, to care for a family member with a serious health condition, for the birth and care of an employee's child or the placement of an adopted or foster child. The law protects an employee's right to return to his or her job after the leave ends. It also requires group health benefits to be maintained during the leave as if employees continued to work instead of taking leave.

"The Family Medical Leave Act helps families by giving an employee the freedom to focus on family medical problems or the arrival of a new family member without the fear of losing his or her job," says Hackett. "It also provides for continuation of health insurance benefits during the leave, which is a critical concern to an employee requiring leave for medical reasons. Employees protected by the Family Medical Leave Act are no longer forced to choose between their jobs and their families."

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