SynthesisMaternal and child health journal2023
Length of Maternity Leave Impact on Mental and Physical Health of Mothers and Infants, a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Maternal and child health journal, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Quebec Parental Insurance Plan: a policy example for reducing inequalities, supporting family functioning and healthy child development.Health promotion international · 2026Article
- Medicine and motherhood: a cross-sectional survey of the experiences of women doctors in the Republic of Ireland.BMC women's health · 2026Article
- The correlation between maternal knowledge of breastfeeding, self-efficacy of breastfeeding and knowledge and attitudes towards donated human milk: a cross-sectional study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Interventions to address inequities in infant mortality and morbidity in the NICU and beyond: A focus on the mother-infant dyad.Seminars in perinatology · 2025Review
- New York state's paid family leave improved postpartum health care among women with hypertensive disorders in pregnancy.Health affairs scholar · 2025Article
- Intervention strategies to prevent mental health problems and improve resilience in employed parents from conception until the child is 5 years of age: a scoping review.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Evaluating stress management approaches, types of social support and postpartum mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study based in the United States.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Long working hours and obstetric complications: A cross-sectional study among female doctors.European journal of obstetrics & gynecology and reproductive biology: X · 2024Article
- Barriers to increasing paid parental leave in U.S. neurology residencies: a survey of program directors.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Leveraging the interpersonal context of child development to promote family resilience: A universal prevention approach from preconception through early childhood.Mental health & prevention · 2024Article
- Maternity Leave, Race, and Postpartum Depression: The Impact of Public Policy on Mothers Living in Poverty.Family & community healthArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRecent legislative decisions in the United States have encouraged discussion about national parental leave programs. Currently, over 47% of the United States workforce is female. However, the United States is the only nation of the 37 member countries in the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) to have no national requirement for maternity leave. The first few months of a child's life are vital to their physical and mental development. Likewise, a gradual return to pre-partum functioning is important for a newly postpartum woman. While it has been shown that maternity leave positively impacts various measures of maternal and infant mental and physical health, we lack consensus on the optimal length of paid or unpaid maternity leave. Accordingly, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the optimal length of paid or unpaid maternity leave to encourage maternal and infant mental and physical health in the United States.
methodsA systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to synthesize and critically evaluate the current research investigating the association between maternity leave and maternal and infant mental and physical health using the Preferred Reporting in Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Databases EMBASE, PsycInfo, and PubMed were searched using specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. Methodological Index for Non-Randomized Studies scale assessed the methodological quality of the included eligible studies. The magnitude of heterogeneity between-study was tested using The Cochrane χ
resultsA total of 21 studies were analyzed. It was found that longer maternity leave may decrease rates of maternal mental and physical health complaints. It was also found that longer maternity leave leads to more positive mother-child interactions, decreased infant mortality, and longer periods of breastfeeding.
conclusionMaternity leave of 12 weeks or more confers the greatest benefit for mothers and their infants.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.