Charity Bliss has revealed two thirds of dads of premature babies are back in the office before their children are released from hospital
New dads are having to return to work while their babies receive specialist neonatal care.
A survey by charity Bliss has revealed two thirds of fathers to premature babies had to return to the office while their child was still in hospital.
The survey of 737 parents also found that 36% of dads resorted to being signed off sick in order to spend time with their baby on the neonatal unit.
The charity has called for statutory parental leave to be increased in light of the findings.
Caroline Lee-Davey, chief executive of Bliss, said: “Statutory paternity leave runs out long before many babies born premature or sick come home from hospital. This forces many dads and partners to be signed off sick or go back to work while their baby fights for their life.
“This is not good for babies or their parents - but it also is not good for employers when valued employees are either struggling to do their jobs while under immense stress worrying about their sick baby, or having to sign off sick or leave work altogether rather than take a planned leave of absence with their employer’s full support.”
The survey also found 77% of parents felt like their parental leave was not long enough, with this figure rising to 90% of parents whose baby spent 10 or more weeks in neonatal care, and 95% of dads
Half of all parents would have liked to take more parental leave but couldn’t afford to take any longer off work, and almost a quarter of dads (24%) said they were concerned for their job if they had to ask for more time off.
Lawrence Quayle, a former retail worker, felt he was left with no choice but to be signed off as sick after his son Leo arrived 15 weeks early.
He said: “When I told my employer that my wife had gone into early labour, there was a dispute between my line manager – who was supporting me – and her manager about whether I could start my paternity leave early. I was dealing with HR when my son was just a few days old and needed me at his cotside.
“Eventually, I was given my paternity leave but because Leo was in intensive care at a hospital 60 miles from home, I knew I’d need more time with him and to support my wife. Things with Leo were very touch and go and there were a number of occasions where it looked like we could lose him.
“I was told I couldn’t take any annual leave and could only take unpaid leave – which I simply could not afford. I ended up being signed off from work with stress for two months. The strain this put on my relationship with the managers at work meant that I chose to leave the company shortly afterwards.”
Glasgow East MP David Linden has backed the findings of the survey.
He said: “These powerful survey responses back up the very same experiences I had when my own two children were born prematurely. So I firmly believe that the time has now come to act and extend the statutory element of parental leave to take into account the unique and challenging circumstances faced by the families of premature and sick babies.
“We’ve had encouraging talks with ministers who seem aware of the issue but the key message from this survey is that the time for talk is over - and the time for action is now.”
