The United States ranks dead last in the world in terms of the support that it gives new parents after having a baby.

就给予新晋父母的支持而言 美国在全世界的排名都是垫底

It’s just fact.

这是事实

Of the top 18 economies in the world, the United States is the only country that does not allow for any paid leave at all.

在全球前18大经济体中 美国是唯一一个不允许带薪休假的国家

So we do have unpaid leave, which is a little bit of a misnomer.

我们有停薪休假 这么说可能有点不太恰当

People think, “Oh, well you can get parental leave.

人们会想“哦 你可以请育婴假

If you’re a dad or a mom you can take time.”

如果你晋升为父母了 你可以慢慢来”

Well, you can if you can afford it.

你当然可以慢慢来 前提是你得承受得起

First of all, only 56 percent of American workers qualify for FMLA because of the stipulations.

首先 根据规定 只有56%的美国人够《家庭与医疗假期法案》的资格

You have to be at a company that has 50 employees.

你必须得在拥有50名员工的公司上班

You have to have worked full time for a year.

你必须得全年全职工作

You have to be working within a certain radius of your company’s home base.

你必须得在公司总部附近的一定范围内工作

So that automatically disqualifies a lot of people.

这些要求自然就会把很多人排除在外

But then when you look at who can actually afford to take 12 weeks of unpaid leave per child, the numbers go down even further.

再看一下有多少人能够承担得起每生一个孩子就得请12周的无薪休假 这就又会筛掉一批人

And what you end up with is that 25 percent of new American mothers go back to work less than two weeks after having had a baby,

这导致的结果就是 美国有25%的新妈妈在生产完后不到两周就得回去上班

which is just so markedly different from how it is in the rest of the world.

这与世界其他各国有明显不同

And I think a lot of people think, erroneously, that it would be really costly for our country to have some sort of paid leave program,

我觉得有很多人都错误地认为 如果我们的国家允许带薪休假 那成本一定会很高

but when you look at the other top performing economies in the world,

但是你看看世界其他顶尖的经济体

these other countries that have—first of all, they have parity between moms and dads.

这些其他国家——首先 他们会平等对待妈妈和爸爸

They have the same leave for adoptive parents.

即便是领养父母也有同样的假期

They have all kinds of things that just make this about actually helping produce the next generation

他们有各种各样的政策 会帮助人们生产下一代

in a way that will make that generation go on to also support the economy.

而这新一代又反过来继续支持经济发展

So in Norway—Norway is consistently ranked as the happiest country in the world.

所以在挪威——挪威一直都被列为世界上最幸福的国家

Wonderful. That makes sense.

很好 这是有道理的

They have almost a year of paid leave.

他们有近一年的带薪休假

Moms and dads are allowed to share it. It sounds great.

妈妈和爸爸可以共享 听起来很不错

But when you look at the economy, they are also the top producing—

但你看看他们的经济 他们也是顶尖的生产大国——

their GDP is the highest per capita of any top economic country in the world.

在世界任何顶级经济大国中 他们的人均GDP是最高的

It’s kind of amazing.

真的很惊人

And on top of that, they have more moms who work than any country in the world.

除此以外 他们的上班族妈妈比世界任何其他国家都多

They also have more moms who work full time, which is a really important distinction.

他们也有更多的全职妈妈 这一点区别很重要

It’s not just that they have, you know, mothers really involved in the workplace.

这不仅仅是他们有更多的上班族妈妈

They have mothers who are REALLY involved in the workplace, are also incredibly happy,

而是他们这些上班族妈妈还极其幸福

have also taken this time away from their jobs.

她们也在工作之余休假了

And somehow the economy is still moving forward at a good clip.

但他们的经济依然在快速前进

This is so far away from what we have in the United States, it’s almost—it’s sad, but it’s almost laughable.

美国的现状跟他们没法比 几乎——很可悲 但也很可笑

The women I interviewed told me that they felt better,

我采访的女性告诉我

kind of more back to normal physically at about the 5.5-month mark after having a baby.

生产完5.5个月后才会感觉好点 身体上才会感觉正常一些

And I was careful to define that as not necessarily back in your pre-pregnancy jeans, that’s not what I meant.

这并不是说你可以恢复到能穿上怀孕之前的牛仔裤 不是那个意思

It’s really more about feeling comfortable in your skin.

而是感觉舒服自在一些

So that’s the 5.5 month mark on average for all these women.

所以对所有女性来说 平均是5.5个月

And these were women who had all approaches to career and motherhood.

这是指有工作 当母亲了的女性

There were single moms, adoptive moms, there were mothers who worked in hourly wage working jobs and more professional jobs,

还有单亲妈妈 收养妈妈 还有做着计时工资和更加专业的工作的妈妈们

really as broad a spectrum of approaches as I could find.

各种各样的方式 超出了我的认知

These women reported feeling back to normal physically after 5.5 months.

这些女性说的是在生产完5.5个月后身体上才会感觉正常

Emotionally, it was actually a little longer, it was 5.8 months,

在情绪上 需要的时间还要长一点 是5.8个月

which is really interesting because when you look at the science of what a good parental leave looks like,

这很有意思 因为你从科学的角度看一下 合理的产假是什么样的

it is six months of paid leave because, according to the research that's been done,

是六个月的带薪休假 因为根据以往所做的研究

six months is the point at which a mother is much less likely to suffer from a postpartum mood disorder or anxiety disorder.

产后六个月是妈妈们最不容易遭受产后情绪障碍或焦虑症的时候

That is also: six months of paid leave is the protective amount for baby’s health.

而且：六个月的带薪休假是对婴儿健康的保护时段

And babies who have had mothers who have been able to take that amount of leave paid are much more likely to be vaccinated on time,

如果婴儿的母亲能够休到六个月的带薪休假 那这些婴儿就更有可能按时接种疫苗

are actually less likely to have ear infections and respiratory infections, it’s been shown—

更不容易遭受耳部感染和呼吸道感染 事实表明——

which sounds really specific, but it is actually due to their mother’s ability to breastfeed longer which—

听起来很特别 但其实是因为他们的妈妈能够用母乳喂养更长时间——

and I’m very much of a “fed is best” kind of person, however you feed your baby, great,

我特别支持“母乳喂养是最好的”这种观点 不管你怎么喂养孩子 都好

I just want you to be able to make the choices that are best for you.

我只是想让你能够做出对自己最好的选择

So basically all of the science shows that it takes at least six months to start really feeling normal again.

基本上所有科学都表明 产后需要六个月才能感觉回到正常状态

And that’s because you are hormonal.

那是因为你会受荷尔蒙影响

Your body has been through the most enormous change any body could go through,

你的身体经历了任何人可能经历的最大程度的变化

and yet you are expected to be back on the job just the way you were before.

但别人却希望你能够像以前那样回去正常上班

So yes, unfortunately, we—the ‘we’ is not me, the ‘we’ is our greater society and culture—

是的 很不幸 我们——这个“我们”不是指我 这个“我们”是指我们更为伟大的社会和文化——

undervalues parents in the workplace, particularly moms.

低估了上班族父母亲的价值 尤其是妈妈们