Miracle Babies Foundation is calling on the government to review the parental leave legislation to make it fairer for parents of pre-term babies.
For the parents of premature and sick babies, parental leave starts as soon as the baby is born.
However, the current legislation fails to consider the needs of parents with babies who spend their first weeks or months of life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) or Special Care Nursery (SCN), instantly reducing the amount of parental leave in the home environment.
In the sidelines of World Prematurity Day (17/11/2019) Kylie Pussell, CEO & Co-founder of Miracle Babies Foundation called on the government to work on legislation that works for all the families in different situations.
The government is urged to introduce legislation that works for all parents, those who have full time babies and those faced with a premature birth.
Also in the sidelines of World Prematurity Day ,Miracle Babies Foundation released a new report illustrating the parental leave gender gap faced by families of premature and sick new-borns in detail.
Every year in Australia more than 48,000 babies require the help of a NICU or an SCN, and up to one thousand will lose their fight for survival.
Dads of very preterm babies are particularly impacted with a third (36%) experiencing high rates of depression and half (47%) suffering from elevated anxiety levels.
In fact, 86% of dads and partners surveyed were required to return to work while their baby was in the NICU or SCN.
