How many days of prenatal care leave?

At present, our country does not have a unified national legal standard for prenatal care leave. Most of the prenatal care leave that people apply for is split from the local male paternity leave (called nursing leave) ranging from 10 to 30 days in some areas. A few areas have separate relaxed policies for prenatal care. The specific length depends on the local population and family planning regulations, as well as the company's internal leave system.

I have been working in human resources for almost 8 years, and I have met many expectant fathers asking how to take this leave. The one who impressed me the most was a young man from Hangzhou last year. His wife was found to have an umbilical cord wrapped around her neck for two weeks in the third trimester of her pregnancy. She had to go to the hospital twice a week for fetal heart rate monitoring and two expert reviews. , he handed over the work with the department half a month in advance and applied to split the local 15-day paternity leave into 3 days of pre-natal leave and 12 days of post-natal leave. The company quickly approved it. Those 3 days were just enough to accompany his wife to the hospital without deducting the perfect attendance bonus. It was considered that the vacation was used wisely.

There have been different voices in the past two years regarding whether to separate prenatal care leave from paternity leave and establish it separately. Many pregnant mothers and their family members feel that there should be separate facilities. After all, it is difficult to move around in the third trimester, and high-risk mothers have to go to the hospital without people. If all the paternity leave is used before delivery, no one will help the mother during the postpartum recovery period, and neither end will be taken care of. There was a Hebei hospital before. The pregnant mother left me a message saying that she had placenta previa and was at risk of bleeding at any time. The doctor required weekly prenatal check-ups. Her husband used all 15 days of paternity leave for prenatal check-ups. After the birth, he could only take personal leave to take care of her, which deducted half a month's salary, which was very distressing. But the voice from the enterprise side is also very real, especially the many small and micro enterprises with more than ten or twenty people, which are originally a carrot and a pit. If an additional 5-10 days of separate prenatal care leave is added, labor costs will increase a lot, and job connection will be troublesome. Many business owners also complained to me privately. If the cost of leave increases again, they will inevitably avoid couples of childbearing age when hiring in the future, which will affect the employment rights of workers in disguise.

Many places are now trying more flexible compromise solutions. For example, some cities in Guangdong and Zhejiang are already piloting a split application mechanism for paternity leave. It does not need to be taken all at once. As long as the work handover is completed with the company in advance, it can be applied on a daily basis for prenatal care and postpartum care at different points. Under the current conditions, it is a way to balance the needs of employees and the burden of the enterprise.