Web Letters | The Nation

Paid leave for women with high-risk pregnancies

I am the founder of Better BedRest, Inc. We support moms on bedrest due to high-risk pregnancies. This invisible population needs to become visible to states around the country. We have seen too many moms go into eviction just because they don’t have paid leave and still have a job to go back to.

In some states there is not emergency cash assistance. Their bills are late and credit is ruined. There is not enough help for other siblings. A time that should be a happy occasion for our bed-resting moms becomes one of sleepless nights.

I am an Obama supporter and one night wrote to President Obama and Michelle and weeks later got a form letter back.

I am convinced that “women on bedrest for high-risk pregnancies’ is just not on the radar screens and certainly not a check box on the computer screens.

We must empower the public to understand what a bed-resting mom and their families go through during this time. Please go to www.betterbedrest.org and watch our video and you will know what it’s like to be on bedrest. We are celebrating twenty years this November as a nonprofit committed to supporting these moms and helping them with a grant up to $500 if they have to leave a job due to bedrest. We are there for them. Let’s find others who will be there for them as well.