Working mothers take a break in their day to spend time with their children at Bistro Madeleine at the Intercontinental Hotel in Dubai.
Working mothers take a break in their day to spend time with their children at Bistro Madeleine at the Intercontinental Hotel in Dubai.
Working mothers take a break in their day to spend time with their children at Bistro Madeleine at the Intercontinental Hotel in Dubai.
Working mothers take a break in their day to spend time with their children at Bistro Madeleine at the Intercontinental Hotel in Dubai.

After labour, it is right back to work


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ABU DHABI // Despite feeling weak and dizzy after childbirth, Mariam al Ateeqi returned to work shortly after her first daughter was born. Under the national maternity leave policy, Mrs Ateeqi was permitted to have 45 days off, but she had exhausted much of that time in the latter days of her pregnancy. And given her financial situation, quitting her job as a psychologist to be with her newborn was not feasible.

"I was not yet ready to go back," said Mrs Ateeqi, an Emirati mother of three. "After going into labour, a woman needs to rest at least two months, but the option was either I leave my baby with a nanny or I quit." Her experience is common among working mothers, who argue that the 45-day time frame is insufficient. In Sweden, for example, new mothers are entitled to 480 days of maternity leave, while in Canada, they receive 50 weeks.

In the UAE, a woman must have worked for a least one year for the same employer before she is eligible for the leave at full pay. If it is less than a year, she still receives the 45 days, but qualifies for only half the pay. "But 45 days is not fair. It's not enough time for a mother with a [newborn] child," said Alia al Kendi, 26, an Emirati psychologist at the National Rehabilitation Centre, who gave birth to her first son last week.

"It's difficult to leave work because of the money, but at the same time, it's difficult to leave my baby when he is so small and needs breast-feeding." Bonnie Scott-Laws, who founded the Working Mothers Group in Dubai, said the labour policy was far from adequate and left little room for possible medical complications. "That 45 days is nothing, especially if the baby is not very well or the mother is healing from a Caesarean section," said Mrs Scott-Laws. "It's just awful."

She started the social network six years ago, and had found that many new mothers were upset with the country's maternity leave scheme. "A couple of them phoned me, completely stressed, saying it took them four or five weeks to get into some kind of routine, and before they knew it, it was time to go back to work. There was very little time with the baby because they basically spent the 45 days finding a live-in nanny and sorting things out."

Khawla al Kaabi, also a psychologist at the National Rehabilitation Centre, said new mothers deserved more time away from work. She recalled the strain of juggling work and caring for her son, now two years old, after the human resources department at her work refused to give her another month off without pay. "The first month [after childbirth], I could not stand alone," she said. "I needed my sister to help bathe me. Then I came back to work after the maternity leave, but I was still feeling dizzy."

Upon learning that she was pregnant again, eight months after giving birth, Mrs Kaabi broke down in tears. "I just cried. I was so tired. We want to have more children like our mothers did, but they have to change the system to help us." Not all Emirati families are financially stable enough to live on one salary alone, says Mrs Ateeqi, who also works at the National Rehabilitation Centre. "As a local, we don't take jobs as a luxury; we work as a need.

"When the baby starts to love the nanny, this kills you. But I also need to work to survive." New mothers can spend more time at home with their newborns by adding their annual sick leave allowance to the maternity leave. But those who are ill throughout their pregnancy often do not have that luxury. Samia al Ris, another psychologist at the centre, used the majority of her 21 days of sick leave during a complicated pregnancy that ended with a miscarriage.

Now Mrs Ris is pregnant again, but she has used up her sick days. "I don't want to lose my baby again, I feel sad about that," she said. "The doctor said I need to lie down all day, but what can I do? I cannot take more time off. Where are the options?" The Ministry of Labour could not be reached for comment. @Email:mkwong@thenational.ae

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