Maternity Leave in Arizona During the Adoption Process
The last thing any mother wants to think about when trying to care for their child is work. As a birth mother, you need time to rest and take care of your body during your pregnancy. If you work a full-time position, however, you may have concerns about trying to both take care of yourself and your child. What about adoptive parents? Is there any allotted time for adoptive parents to spend time with their children after they adopt the child? Are you eligible to take a Maternity Leave in Arizona during an adoption? Adoption Choices of Arizona wants to make sure you know your rights to your own time off and how you can be sure that the adoptive family will have time to take care of your child.
Maternity Leave for Birth Mothers in Arizona
Working through a pregnancy is either terribly difficult or totally impossible. During your pregnancy, you should be busy taking care of your body and your child. One of the best ways to get that time is to see if you qualify for maternity leave. Maternity leave in Arizona has various iterations depending on your circumstances. In Arizona, there are no particular laws that increase parental leave for parents. This means that you’ll be relying on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or your own employers’ policies.
The Family and Medical Leave Act give certain eligible employees 12 workweeks of unpaid leave per year with health benefits. This also guarantees employees a job in the same or a similar position after the leave is up. The FMLA applies to all public agencies and employers who employ 50 or more people for at least 20 weeks in this or last year. You also must have worked at least roughly 23 hours per week or 1,250 hours during the last 12 months to qualify for the leave. Pregnancy is one of several allowed reasons that people take FMLA leave.
However, make sure to confirm you qualify for FMLA leave before making plans. You can contact Adoption Choices of Arizona anytime to learn more details, and you can contact your employer as well to be certain.
Resources for Birth Mothers
Let’s face it, you’re probably concerned about how you’ll support yourself. Pregnancies are expensive. Doctor visits, gas to drive to the doctor’s, maternity clothes, and a million other expenses seem to pile up with each passing day during a pregnancy. Not to mention that unless you’re employed at a public agency, the FMLA only guarantees unpaid maternity leave.
Fear not, Adoption Choices of Arizona has years of experience helping mothers just like you find the financial aid they need. For example, we’ll help provide money for maternity clothes and healthcare. We also will make sure you have transportation to and from any doctors’ visits. If you’re concerned about housing or legal services, we have got you covered there too. The adoptive family may even chip in if you’re having trouble affording the costs of your pregnancy. Adoption Choices of Arizona is a licensed adoption agency, and we’ll make sure every bill is paid on time.
Maternity Leave for Adoptive Parents
You can feel secure that the adoptive family will have time for your child. We have a variety of ways we make sure they’re ready to take care of the child. For one, with the FMLA, both parents may qualify for leave from work to spend time and bond with the newborn child. Adoptive families also must take and pass an in-depth home study. Home studies include interviews, a look at the family’s living situation, and verification that they have ample income to support a child. While the exact details of a home study are anonymous, you can be sure that all adoptive families working with Adoption Choices of Arizona have passed their home studies.
Maternity Leave While Putting Baby up for Adoption
No matter your situation, Adoption Choices of Arizona will make sure you’re able to get the help you need. If you have had a full-time position for the past 12 months and meet the requirements, the FMLA will grant you up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave with a guarantee of returning to your position or an equivalent one. During your time on unpaid leave, we can help make sure you have plenty of financial resources. The FMLA maintains your health benefits during your time off, but we can help with expenses if you’re still in need of some more help. As for adoptive families, they also qualify for maternity leave to spend a little more time with their little ones. Want to learn more about building your adoption plan? You can read more at our website here!
Meet the author: Joshua Boulet is an aspiring journalist and writer with a particular fondness for research and social sciences. He loves music, writing, reading, video games, and most art, and anything creative he can get his hands on. Boulet believes that there’s too much good stuff out there and not enough time to see it all. He grew up on video games: the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games, Mario Kart, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Legend of Zelda. The music of rhythm games led him to an interest in that, and the investigative journalism of Jason Schreier inspired him to discover the importance of journalism as an industry. That interest in developers’ lives led him to an interest in social justice and how the world could maybe be made into a better place. “All this to say, there is certainly a line I can draw between me obsessively playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and me interviewing my sociology professor about how to read academic articles. Those surprising through lines fascinate me all the same. At my best, I’m a person who gets to be constantly fascinated by the lives and work of other people.”
His favorite quote is from his favorite jazz musician:
“A genius is the one most like himself” – Thelonious Monk.
