The rights of babies
3rd December 2009 In her discussion of maternity rights, Catherine Hakim (December) throws the baby out with the bathwater, an unfortunate short-sightedness given that maternity rights exist not just for the sake of mothers, but for children. The psychological health of both an infant and a mother —and by extension the health of our society—depends on maternity rights. As the think tank Rand recently reported, the highest return on investment occurs in the first years of life, and then falls almost exponentially as the child grows.
Maternity rights, then, are a social investment for our future. The professional adult world needs to accept this fact and reorganise to accommodate it. What too often gets forgotten in Britain is that sometimes maximising productivity and winning the top job is not necessarily good for one’s health, nor especially for the health of one’s baby and new family.
Jonathan Delafield-Butt University of Edinburgh
3rd December 2009 In her discussion of maternity rights, Catherine Hakim (December) throws the baby out with the bathwater, an unfortunate short-sightedness given that maternity rights exist not just for the sake of mothers, but for children. The psychological health of both an infant and a mother —and by extension the health of our society—depends on maternity rights. As the think tank Rand recently reported, the highest return on investment occurs in the first years of life, and then falls almost exponentially as the child grows.
Maternity rights, then, are a social investment for our future. The professional adult world needs to accept this fact and reorganise to accommodate it. What too often gets forgotten in Britain is that sometimes maximising productivity and winning the top job is not necessarily good for one’s health, nor especially for the health of one’s baby and new family.
Jonathan Delafield-Butt University of Edinburgh
