Fewer rural Maine moms get paid leave, study shows

Courtesy / Adobe Stock Mothers of newborns in rural Maine are less likely to have paid leave after giving birth, a study by Northeastern University showed.

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By Peter Van Allen

Parents of newborns in rural Maine are less likely to get paid parental leave than those in urban areas of the state, according to a new study.

Northeastern University surveyed 151 new moms from around the state and found that nearly two-thirds (64%) in metro areas had some parental leave after childbirth while only 43% of mothers in rural areas had paid leave. The study was co-authored by Louisa H. Smith, an epidemiologist at the Boston-based school.

Maine passed a Paid Family and Medical Leave law in 2023 that will provide parents with 12 weeks of paid leave after childbirth, fostering or adoption, though the law will not go into effect until mid-2026.

The differences may translate into increased stress for rural families, researchers noted.

“We asked if you were ever worried about running out of food in the first 12 weeks postpartum,” Brianna Keefe-Oates, who co-authored the report as a postdoctoral fellow, told Northeastern Global News.

The finding indicates that having paid leave could help decrease financial stress during the 12-week postpartum period. For now, parents in rural areas are getting by with less of a financial cushion, the authors said.

The median amount of paid leave was 12 weeks.

“Interestingly, we didn’t see differences in the median amount of leave that people took,” Smith told the Northeastern magazine. “People, even if they didn’t have paid leave, were still taking leave for the most part because they needed that time to recover from childbirth. They needed that time to be with their infants.”

Smith is affiliated with Northeastern's Bouve College of Health Sciences as well as the school's Roux Institute in Portland.

Methodology

The report analyzed data from their own survey of new parents as well as state and federal data.

The report analyzed data from two sources: Northeastern's own survey of new parents, called the Maine Assessment of Parental Leave Experiences, as well as state and federal data from the Maine Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitoring System.

The Northeastern survey included 151 new mothers from around the state of Maine, while the latter survey included over 400 participants.