American Mom in Spain Shares Differences in Parental Leave

Benefits for the self-employed eased the financial strain

Earned parents receive the equivalent of their salary for four consecutive months. Like a independent parentI was initially devastated to find out that I would be getting paid much less. However, I was still entitled to benefits in Spain, receiving about $1,200 a month during my maternity leave.

Although this was less than my usual monthly earnings, at least it’s something. Two independent friends in Colorado spent months saving to put them through maternity leave despite the state’s new family medical leave program. While I worked more in the last month of pregnancy, the payments eased the pressure.

Parents have the option to share their leave. My husband and I took the first two months together; she worked months three and four, and now she’s taking the next two to take care of our son while I go back to work. That’s a full six months without childcare. My husband receives his full salary during each month of paternity leave.

The process of receiving benefits is simple

While the Spanish bureaucracy moves at a snail’s pace, this is one of the exceptions. As a self-employed person, the only thing I had to do was send my son’s birth certificate to my accountant. My friends in the US talked about a complicated system of forms and multiple applications, with each state having its own guidelines. A friend in California had to sign up for benefits even before she got pregnant in order to receive them.

There is no doubt that a parent will take their full leave, except for some self-employed business owners. My European clients have been very understanding and have already taken me back. I spoke to a father in the US who felt he couldn’t leave his job as a lawyer for more than two weeks of paid leave. Despite US law protecting parents for 12 weeks, he felt guilty about leaving his clients stranded. In Spain, vacation is accepted and expected.

My body could heal and I felt less alone

It took my body weeks to heal from the birth. With my partner there to take care of the physical tasks of caring for a newborn, as well as basic tasks (cleaning the bathroom, for example), I could focus on recovery.

During the night, she could get up and feed my baby without the anxiety of getting up early for work. I felt supported during night feeds; there was camaraderie in the collective exhaustion – though sleepy, we felt united.

I also had the time and money to go to several pelvic floor therapy appointments. There was less financial effort to do what I needed to take care of myself.

Breastfeeding was not easy. I never imagined that feeding a little human would feel like a full-time job. Four months of paid leave allowed me to focus solely on figuring out how to get calories into the new creature.