How Paid Family and Medical Leave Benefits Families and Businesses

(StatePoint) The United States is one of the only countries in the world that does not guarantee paid family and medical leave to workers, leaving millions of babies without the care they need in their earliest months of life.

Paid leave is associated with higher breastfeeding rates, regularly attended well-child visits with pediatricians, and other key markers of short- and long-term health for young children and adults. Plus, early relationships with parents and caregivers, specifically in the first three years of life, shape a child’s brain development, laying the foundation for lifelong learning, health and well-being.