Workplace Accommodations for Pregnant Employees: Associations With Women's Access to Health Insurance Coverage After Childbirth

Objective: This study evaluates the associations between workplace accommodations for pregnancy, including paid and unpaid maternity leave, and changes in women's health insurance coverage postpartum. Methods: Secondary analysis using Listening to Mothers III, a national survey of women ages 18 to 45 years who gave birth in U.S. hospitals during 2011 to 2012 (N = 700). Results: Compared with women without access to paid maternity leave, women with access to paid leave were 0.4 times as likely to lose private health insurance coverage, 0.3 times as likely to lose public health coverage, and 0.3 times as likely to become uninsured after giving birth. Conclusion: Workplace accommodations for pregnant employees are associated with health insurance coverage via work continuity postpartum. Expanding protections for employees during pregnancy and after childbirth may help reduce employee turnover, loss of health insurance coverage, and discontinuity of care.

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