Solo Mother

Two important things you can do to help Moms and kids this week

by christina on May 6th, 2008

If you’re going to buy someone flowers for Mother’s Day, consider ordering from Pro Flowers.… $10 of all Mother’s Day orders in the US will be donated to the March of Dimes, the US’s leadng non-profit organization for pregnancy and baby health.

I don’t usually post info verbatum from action alerts in my inbox but damn, here’s one we just have to read and act on now (thanks to Moms Rising):

Want to honor mothers this week? Take a moment to ask your Congressperson to co-sponsor the just introduced Family Leave Insurance Act of 2008 in honor of Mother’s Day.

If passed, the Family Leave Insurance Act (HR 5873) would provide paid family leave to care for a new child, sick family member, treat their own illness, or deal with an exigency caused by the deployment of a member of the military. With the recent passageof Family Leave Insurance bills in New Jersey and Washington, MomsRising.org members have been gaining momentum. Now it’s time to bring that momentum to the national level:

http://www.momsrising.org/Cosponsor_FamilyLeaveInsurance

MomsRising.org members are a make-it-or-break-it force on this issue. Frankly, it’s going to take some heavy lifting to get the co-sponsors and momentum this bill needs to pass. But it’s worth the effort. The U.S. is way behind the rest of the world on family leave, and this bill can help us catch up. Here are some quick stats:

• A Harvard/McGill University study of over 170 countries found that only four don’t have some form of paid leave for new moms. The four are the United States, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, and Liberia;
• Paid family leave has been shown to drop infant mortality by as much as 25%; and,
• Paid family leave has been shown to help narrow the wage penalties mothers face.

This is an important moment to help spark real change.

EMAIL YOUR CONGRESSPERSON TODAY TO GET THEIR SUPPORT FOR FAMILY LEAVE:
http://www.momsrising.org/Cosponsor_FamilyLeaveInsurance

Thanks to Shani and Suzie for these heads-up!

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