Paid Maternity Leave and Breastfeeding in Urban China

Abstract

Using data from the 2010 Survey on Chinese Women's Social Status, this contribution estimates the effect of paid maternity leave on breastfeeding duration in urban China during the 1988-2008 period. The analysis applies a policy-based identification strategy to control for the endogenous relationship between paid leave entitlements and breastfeeding decisions. Estimates show that paid maternity leave has a strong positive effect on breastfeeding duration. Specifically, if the length of paid leave increases by thirty days, then the probability of breastfeeding for at least six months increases by 12 percentage points. Between 1988 and 2008, the average length of paid leave for mothers without a college education decreased by twenty-three days, which reduced these mothers' probability of breastfeeding for at least six months by 9 percentage points. These results support the view that paid maternity leave enhances the ability of employed women to sustain breastfeeding and call for universal paid leave entitlements.

Breastfeeding practices and associated factors at the individual, family, health facility and environmental levels in China

“…Because paid maternity leave protects women's employment and income during their pregnancy and after childbirth, the women are more likely to have better breastfeeding practices (Chai, Nandi, & Heymann, 2018;Rollins et al, 2016). Previous studies showed that mothers who returned to work were less likely to practice EBF (Jia, Dong, & Song, 2018;Mirkovic, Perrine, & Scanlon, 2016). Given that the duration of paid maternity leave in China is just 14 weeks, it is challenging for mothers to exclusively breastfeed their children for 6 months.…”

Comparison of Labor Laws in China, Russia, and the US

“…China provides 128 days of paid family leave (Jia, Dong, & Song, 2018), and Russia provides 140 days of paid family leave (Addati, Cassirer, & Gilchrist, 2014;IBP, 2016). By comparison even though the US does not generally require this form of paid leave, U.S, employers could voluntarily choose to adopt a policy that would, and many have done so.…”

Inclusive Growth for Men and Women in the People’s Republic of China: Demographic, Technological, and Structural Transformations

“…As a reflection of the rural-urban divide, paid leave, to a large extent, remains an urban phenomenon. In the cities, the coverage of paid leave in private sectors, where migrant workers are concentrated, is low because there are no effective means of enforcing labor market regulations in these sectors (Jia, Dong, and Song 2018). In 2016, only 49.6% of the Chinese mothers who gave birth received maternity leave benefits, which is well below 82% in Mongolia and 69% in the Russian Federation.…”