Seconds after my daughter was born a nurse placed her tiny pulsing body on my chest. The sight captivated me, and as she lay there I thought of nothing else but the marvel of her new life.
In the days that followed, the complicated and busy world came into view again, and I began to hear the inevitable ticking of time. In 12 weeks, I would somehow have to find the courage to ignore the hormones that primed my body and mind for complete devotion. I would have to leave this helpless being, my first child, and return to work.
I’d taken for granted that 12 weeks of leave is a standard benchmark, thanks to the Family and Medical Leave Act, which requires companies of a certain size to give employees that much unpaid leave in the event of childbirth or adoption. But I couldn’t explain how we arrived at that number. Surely it must be based on the recommendations of child development experts, or reflect the difficulty of caring for a three-month-old baby, or even take into consideration the physical recovery after childbirth.