How many women go back to work 3 days after giving birth?

[riderinthestorm]

I'm curious if anyone else finds that, uhm, just a tad strange? As the mother of 2 kids, my body was very sore still, and mentally I can't imagine leaving my newborn baby after just 3 days to go back to work full time. I know I did some work from home pretty quickly after I gave birth both times but back at the office that quick? Sarah Palin didn't work from home, she was back at her office.

Anyone know of a person who was so, uhm, committed (yeah, that's the word) to their work that they were back at it 3 days post-birth? I've worked in women's shelters for a long time and seen a lot of poor women who've had to go to work when they were physically stressed out (or abused or beat or whatever) but I don't know a single woman even in those circumstances who went back to work that quickly after giving birth.

I'm trying to reconcile my feminist open-mindedness about child care and women working with Sarah Palin's decision but I can't wrap my brain around her decision to go back to work that quick.

[TwilightGardener]

1. None. Unless maybe you live in a third-world country and would starve

if you didn't get back out into the fields.

[CatWoman]

11. WD,

when I first moved here, I worked for this idiot who used to brag about a former employee of his who was "so focused", that she worked right up to going into labor, then came back in the office the NEXT DAY after giving birth.

Needless to say, I wasn't impressed.

[Breeze54]

14. Or you're poor and have no insurance and work on hourly wages!

Then you might go back as soon as possible!

[TwilightGardener]

16. True. If you have no paid leave or vacation--but it's still hard to believe

that you're going to go back to work while passing clots and your milk is leaking and you're exhausted.

[knitter4democracy]

2. I might have been able to after my son's birth.

Pretty easy birth overall (just one stitch), though his head was huge. We went home the afternoon after I pushed him out. No reason to stay longer, as he was healthy.

Her son's not healthy, though, and I'm more shocked by the fact that he never went to the NICU, even though he was a preemie. Very odd.

[Breeze54]

3. I did, brought 2nd home and took care of 30 month old and newborn.

;)

[JohnnyLib2]

15. GREAT point.

I'm thinking a lot of moms know all about that. Will they speak up now?

[krabigirl]

4. Ouch! Not me.

And I think this sucks for women who need more federally mandated maternity leave. "Oh, you need more than (x) weeks? Why? Governor Palin went back to work after only THREE days? WHat are you, lazy?"

[riderinthestorm]

13. Eek. Good point. nt

[dbonds]

5. You can turn that around to say, being governor of Alaska doesn't require much.

She felt comfortable enough to go back to the job after just 3 days rest, it must be an easy job.

[greenbriar]

6. I agree, but honestly, how hard is it to sit in a chair and pretend to work

its not like she had to do anything physical like those of us in the real world

[riderinthestorm]

12. Ok, I get the physical part - that for some women it might be possible. But mentally?

I'm trying to understand what kind of ambition (to be kind) drives a woman back into the office, leaving their newborn? I couldn't keep my hands off my babies as I learned about them during those early days. Leaving a newborn with someone else for the x-number of hours it takes to run Alaskan politics is a mental wrench I'm trying to understand.

There's a personality quirk here that's pretty odd if you ask me, and doesn't seem to square with the rest of her rhetoric about the "value" she places upon her family. The fact that Sarah Palin went to work that quickly after giving birth is at least some insight into how she values (treats?) her kids. Is it fair to ask if Bristol's teen pregnancy is partly attributable to her mother's lack of attention. It wouldn't be the first time I've seen it.

[Ghost in the Machine]

7. I saw a Mexican woman give birth in a squash field and go back to picking squash

after her teenage daughter carried the baby, wrapped in a blanket, back to their van. This was in Homestead Florida in 1991..

[Sanctified]

8. I once worked for a family who's daughter worked for them and she did.

I remember that right after the baby was born she was back at work but that was because she worked for her parents and could bring her baby to work all day.

[riderinthestorm]

17. I brought my kids to work with me too

I'm trying to figure out if I'm some kind of anomaly and leaving your 3 day old newborn is some kind of norm these days for you young whippersnappers! ;-) It's not as though Sarah Palin had to be at the office or she'd lose her job. Or that she couldn't work from home. Or that the voters wouldn't understand if she took even the standard 6 week family leave time after a birth....

It seems weird to me and again, to me, tells me a lot about Sarah Palin.

[Sanctified]

29. Did she leave the baby or bring him with her? n/t

[RB TexLa]

9. I know quite a few who have.

[aikoaiko]

10. Marilyn Quayle

I think that Dan Quayle's wife, Marilyn, had her pregnancy induced a month early so that she could take the bar exam on time, doing so while sitting on a rubber ring because she was still sore. What a foolish reason to induce a birth!

[Nikia]

18. My boss wants me to

He said that I should be able to come back to work in a week or less because my male predecessor came back to work on a Monday after his wife had their baby on a Thursday. When I said that he should plan on me taking the full six weeks, he said that I was selfish and denying him his three weeks vacation (he can't take vacation while I am gone).
I told him that perhaps he should take his vacation soon, before I have the baby (I am due in mid November). He is still miffed because he wanted to take his vacation during December.

[Liberal_in_LA]

22. Your 'male predecessor' isn't the one who gave birth! OMG..your boss is a tool.

[riderinthestorm]

23. Yeppers, as pointed out above, expect your boss to point to Sarah Palin when he asks you again

to come back to work earlier than you want.

[quercus palustris]

19. My boss did.

But she didn't have to move around a lot. Lot's of phone calls, etc.

I still don't buy the Palin story.

[Matariki]

20. self-delete. duplicate

but while I'm at it, here's a link to some comments from an obstetrician about her plane ride: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/08/palins-leaking-amniotic-fluid.php

[marlakay]

21. i couldn't hardly walk 3 days after having both of my girls

and i was in my 20's, healthy and not overweight and in shape. The pics of her after while she says she is breast feeding also make me wonder since at the beginning you are huge, usually having leaks all the time...she doesn't look that way to me.

You usually still have tons of baby fat at bare minimum for the first month and we see none of that. just weird weird weird.

[Matariki]

24. How many women get on a plane (for hours) after their water breaks?

I want to hear her explain THAT. Because that, in my opinion, is where her story really breaks down.

In fact, I'd be interested if the news interviewed her Doctor and asked whether she consulted her before getting on the plane and if so, if that's the sort of advice she normally gives to 44 year old women carrying Down Syndrome babies.

I think the whole thing is pretty obvious. I'm surprised at how gullible people can be.

And again, if she's willing to pull a stunt like this, well I guess she's an asset to the Republican party. She'll be willing to cover up anything they ask her to.

The dirt around her firing the Police Chief is groin deep in cover ups.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

25. my chem II prof at UofA missed

exactly four hours of class...went into labor at 2PM on a Friday and was back in class (with the munchkin in tow) on Monday morning. It was unreal...I am convinced if she had had labs or something on Friday night or the weekend she would have been there...

she also argued with me on a Bohr Model of phosphorus...and was wrong and to this day hasn't admitted it...ONE DAY I SHALL BE VINDICATED!!!

sP

[riderinthestorm]

27. LOL!! But!

Sarah Palin didn't bring her baby to work with her. I would even be able to understand doing that if you were uber dedicated.

But leaving your new babe after 3 days (she didn't have compelling financial reasons)? That's whack.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

30. you could not have TORN my wife away from our little ones

three days after they were born...then again, my wife doesn't suffer from rampant political ambition either...

sP

[LostInAnomie]

26. Mooseburgers give women super-vaginas.

[WA98296]

28. They wouldn't let me out of the hospital in three days.

[hamsterjill]

31. What would an OB really say?

Does any woman here have an obstetrician who they seriously think would approve his/her patient returning to work three days after giving birth? My ob would not have approved that.

Palin most likely went against medical advice. So does that mean that she would take advice from experts if she were VP? Or does that call into question the fact that Palin may have a problem heeding advice and listening to experts. You be the judge.

[Name removed]

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