TheIndependent.com

BABY BOOK 2018 19 FRIDAY, January 25, 2019 The Grand Island Independent www.theindependent.com By Josh Salmon For the Independent Having a child is themost won- derful thing in the world. But with the new arrival comes new wor- ries and new responsibilities — like howmuch time do newmoth- ers get off work, andwhat happens when it’s time to go back? Some mothers don’t have enough vacation or leave time accrued to be with their baby af- ter birth, thus forc- ing themto takeun- paid leave, or go back before they are ready. So where does Nebraska stand on parental leave? Nebraska does not have a state parenting or family leave law, but theFederalMedical LeaveAct gives employeeswhowork for largercom- panies the right to take time off to bond with a new child — biologi- cal, adopted or foster. This is part of your total 12-week FMLA leave entitlement. So, if you use two weeks of FMLA leave during your pregnancy, youwill have tenweeks left to use for parental leave. The United States is the only in- dustrializednationthatdoesnotman- datepaidmaternity leave, according totheOrganizationforEconomicCo- operation andDevelopment. Right now, federal law protects for up to 12 weeks the jobs of men and women who take leave to care for a child. It doesn’t, however, re- quire that time off come with pay. Two of the requirements are: employees must work aminimum of 1,250 hours, which is about eight months, at their current company, and the company must employ at least 50 people. Many smaller companies in the area offer 4-8weeks off rather than the 12 weeks FMLA requires. Most of the day cares in Grand Island won’t take a child until they are at least six weeks old. So what do parents do if they need more time off than they are allotted? Before 2018, many area parents had to rely on family members or friends to look after their newborn for day care until the baby was old enough for state-licensed day care, due to parents having to return to work from lack of paid time off. But that changed just ayear ago. Effective Jan. 8, 2018, the State of Nebraska now offers a mater- nity leavedonationprogramtonew and expecting mothers on family medical leave who have exhausted their sick timeaccrual.Withagency director approval, expecting ornew mothers can receive donated vaca- tion and compensatory time from their co-workers, within their own agency, to augment their own paid time off while on family medical leave. This new initiative is an ex- pansion of the state’s existing cat- astrophic leave donation program. Newmotherswill be able touse the new program in conjunction with their existing FMLA benefits. Suchaprogramhasbeenutilized bymanycompanies inGrandIsland in the past year since its induction. Grand IslandPublic Schools has used the maternity leave donation programoften in the past year. The district’sdonationrulestates:If astaff memberexhaustsallof theirownsick leaveaccrualandpersonaldayswhile onmaternity leave, theycanrequest donateddays.Thereisafive-daylimit for regular delivery and 10-day limit for c-section (since that typically re- quires a longer absence). Wayne Stelk, executive direc- tor of human resources for GIPS, said several employees took advan- tage of the change. “Last year we had ten certified staff tookadvantage of the donated sick leave formaternity.”He added that, even though it is still early in 2019, GIPS has already had staff take use the program. “This year so far three have done it,” he said. The best part of the maternity leave donation program is that is the program does not impose new costs on the State of Nebraska, be- cause it relies on the donations of existing vacation and compensa- tory time which have already been earned by state teammates. Expecting mothers who wish to benefit from the new program should contact their agency HR partner,whowill thenworkontheir behalf to help solicit donations. Another question facing new parents is what resources are out there for themprior to childbirth, or after? CHI Health St. Francis offers a plethora of classes for expecting and new parents. Their patient education library provides easy-to-understand pro- gramming on a variety of topics including newborn care, breast- feeding, baby development, shaken baby syndrome, circumcisions, im- munizations, pregnancy, postpar- tum care and more. This video li- brary is available 24 hours a day and on any device with a wi-fi con- nection. It is available on theirweb- site at www.chihealth.com They also offer a lactation con- sultant for breastfeeding questions, and classes for babies up until they are 32 weeks old. So how do you know if you are choosing the right source of day care for your newborn? There are many resources for suchquestions available on theNe- braskaHealthandHumanServices website under the child and fam- ilies tab. Changes in state law allow new leave options for new parents Wayne Stelk Luka Kylian Ventura 12 * 10 * 18 Proud Parents: Jadeyn Trejo & Jose Ventura Proud Grandparents: Rose & Jayson Rhoads Tommy Trejo | Dean & Dode Ralls Loretta Rhoads | Elva Stevens Margaret Ann Lakers 12 * 12 * 18 Proud Parents: Nate & Maren Lakers Proud Grandparents: Wendell & Barb Ring Mark & Jackie Lakers Hannah Marie Powell 12 * 14 * 18 Proud Parents: Melissa & Tyler Powell Proud Grandparents: Randy & Liz Powell Scott & Betty Baldwin