Paid Family Leave to Enhance the Health Outcomes of Preterm Infants

Prematurity is the largest contributor to perinatal morbidity and mortality. Preterm infants and their families are a significant vulnerable population burdened with limited resources, numerous health risks, and poor health outcomes. The social determinants of health greatly shape the economic and psychosocial resources that families possess to promote optimal outcomes for their preterm infants. The purposes of this article are to analyze the resource availability, relative risks, and health outcomes of preterm infants and their families and to discuss why universal paid family leave could be one potential public policy that would promote optimal outcomes for this infant population. First, we discuss the history of family leave in the United States and draw comparisons with other countries around the world. We use the vulnerable populations conceptual model as a framework to discuss why universal paid family leave is needed and to review how disparities in resource availability are driving the health status of preterm infants. We conclude with implications for research, nursing practice, and public policy. Although health care providers, policy makers, and other key stakeholders have paid considerable attention to and allocated resources for preventing and treating prematurity, this attention is geared toward individual-based health strategies for promoting preconception health, preventing a preterm birth, and improving individual infant outcomes. Our view is that public policies addressing the social determinants of health (e.g., universal paid family leave) would have a much greater impact on the health outcomes of preterm infants and their families than current strategies.