Air Force considering longer maternity leave

My grandmother always told me if I have nothing nice to say about a topic I should not say anything.....so...........moving on.

I don't think this is a bad thing....however..... If I understand and remember correctly, with the current 42 days of Maternity leave, there is also 14 days of Paternity leave available for the father. To be fair, if expanding the maternity leave x3, I think that the Paternity leave for dad should also be expanded 2-3x. I feel this is warranted because the addition of an infant into a family results in huge change to the family dynamics. I doubt this will be looked at/considered tho....

Back in the earlier years of women in the military, most were given the option to separate. There was no such thing as a military maternity uniform. Imagine trying to lead as an officer in a cute little pink dress with Peter Pan collars and a bow. During my pregnancy with my second child, maternity uniforms were available; the powers that be recognized that not all of us were going to go away and the first female academy grads were hitting the bases. Those were assets they wanted to keep. And keep working. Leave following the birth of my second child was 4 weeks. Barely time to begin any bonding or for my body to heal; he was a preemie and we had complications. If I wanted to continue my career, the requirement was to show back up in uniform after 4 weeks or face disciplinary action and probable discharge. I showed up. I think had I had the "luxury" of longer paid maternity leave, it would have made a world of difference in the health of my infant. I was mentally ready to get back in the game, but it takes about 10 months of body changes to first give birth and then there are breast feeding, bonding, and recovery and a million other things that could not have and did not cross one's mind like having no sleep for days, weeks, months. Good training for deployment. Not good for the body, safety and proficiency. The blessing I had was I was in a unit that I was able to go home every night and get no sleep but lives weren't immediately on the line.