The Air Force is considering lengthening paid maternity leave, following the lead of the Navy, which tripled the benefit to 18 weeks.
The Air Force currently offers six weeks of maternity leave, as Defense Department policies require. But in an email Wednesday, Air Force spokeswoman Rose Richeson said the Air Force is looking into extending that leave.
Richeson said the possible extension would be "similar to the recent changes announced by the Secretary of the Navy," Ray Mabus. Richeson said there is no time frame for making any decisions on changing the leave policy.
Mabus announced the Navy's maternity leave expansion on July 2. The Navy said it was inspired by Google's expansion of maternity leave from 12 weeks to 18 weeks in 2007, which the company said halved the number of new mothers who left after giving birth.
The Navy's expanded leave benefit does not apply to adoptive parents or new fathers. Under the new policy, commanding officers are required to grant women who have just given births up to a 18 weeks of leave, using a combination of maternity leave and convalescent leave beyond 30 days. The Navy said that new moms don't have to take all of this leave at once, but they can only use it within one year of their children's births.
The Air Force has taken several steps to try to be more family friendly, and encourage new parents – especially mothers – to stay in the service. This year, the first class of airmen in the service's new Career Intermission Program began taking sabbaticals of up to three years. About 30 percent of those 32 airmen took time off to start a family.
And in March, the Air Force announced it would double the deployment deferment for new mothers from six months to a full year.
Meghann Myers contributed to this report.
