I’m a Chinese mum

chinesemum

Hey I’m a 31 years old pregnant woman from China. My EDD is Aug 27th. I’m always curious about American culture. Especially now when I’m pregnant I really want to know : What do you do when you’re pregnant? How do you think of the COMING SOON new baby? Do you have the worries we Chinese pregnant women have?....So many questions in my head. So I came here “the BUMP”;)

Now I’m 18w+6 pregnant. I am taking Elevit vitamin complex and calcium every day as my doctor told that the baby needed. I am working as a HR specialist in a manufacturing factory. I think I will work until my day comes. We have 4 months for female maternity leave. Does that sounds crazy for you? those are what came into my head and I will share more if any of you are interested.

Hope to get to know more American mum here. You can ask me anything you curious about China.  

ssthomps

Are you living in the United States? Exactly what worries do Chinese women have regarding pregnancy? Just some questions I have. 

ecwk

chinesemum said:

Hey I’m a 31 years old pregnant woman from China. My EDD is Aug 27th. I’m always curious about American culture. Especially now when I’m pregnant I really want to know : What do you do when you’re pregnant? How do you think of the COMING SOON new baby? Do you have the worries we Chinese pregnant women have?....So many questions in my head. So I came here “the BUMP”;)

Now I’m 28w+6 pregnant. I am taking Elevit vitamin complex and calcium every day as my doctor told that the baby needed. I am working as a HR specialist in a manufacturing factory. I think I will work until my day comes. We have 4 months for female maternity leave. Does that sounds crazy for you? those are what came into my head and I will share more if any of you are interested.

Hope to get to know more American mum here. You can ask me anything you curious about China.  

Hello.

We are a group of women who have been interacting and getting to know each other since December. We’d love for you to join us but you really should familiarise yourself with the board guidelines first.  Please read the *READ FIRST* thread and if you haven’t already, post in the INTRO thread. One off threads like these are discouraged as is treating the group like your personal google. We have a questions thread and a random thread where your questions would fit well  

I know there is probably a language barrier but I’m not sure what you mean by “what do you do when you’re pregnant?”

4 months maternity leave does not sound crazy to me. Not all women on this board are American or live in America, though the majority do.

princesslockness

I think your math is off. Either that or you calculate pregnancy length differently than we do. I’m an Aug. 6th EDD and I’ll be 22w tomorrow.

chinesemum

Hi~ I live in China. We (especially for the 1st pregnancy) always have worries like if we are eating the healthy food? Will the baby healthy grow healthily? How can I keep fit during pregnancy? Shall I quit the job or not?... 

chinesemum

Hi, thanks for the support suggestion. I just check the “Read First”. Seems I sent my message to the wrong place. I will repost to the INTRO thread.
when i typed “ what do you do when you’re pregnant” I mean “do you work or stay at home when you get pregnant?” 

chinesemum

  oh... typo, i’m 18w+6 pregnant now

lalala2004

4 months is a good leave by American standards! Is that typical in China, or just a benefit from your job?

chinesemum

It’s typical here. Chinese female employees have 3 to 6 months for maternity leave. It depends on where u came from. In our province, it’s 4 months. 

ssthomps

There is a mix of women on this board. Some work some are stay at home moms. It is a decision that you will have to make for your family. Me personal I would love to stay home, but I enjoy having my own career and the independence it brings. I also feel that my daughter benefits from going to day care. I am a little worried about this baby and paying double day care fees. I have discussed with my supervisor about me working from home more and she is ok with that. We will have to see how this all plays out. 

mrslittlemac

I wish my position had the option to work from home; I'd do that in a heartbeat. As it is I'll get six weeks of unpaid leave. Definitely going to be tight financially, and I don't know if I'll emotionally be ready to jump back in at that point. But I also can't afford to lose my job, so will have to make it work.

chinesemum

Cool. I think we are on the same page. I will go back to work after my maternity leave too. But baby day care service sounds new to me. Since how old of your daughter that you started to send her there? In China, it’s typical to hire a maternity matron after the 1st month of the baby was born. Then normally it’s our mum( or mother in law) help to take care of the baby until 1-2 years old. As I know we don’t have such kind of baby care center for little baby, only have kindergarden where you can send the baby to when he reaches 2 years old. So i’m really curious how’s the day care center work? 

chinesemum

6 weeks unpaid leave sounds not fair is it legal? Does you company pay for your birth insurance? If so it will be much better for your financial situation. In China, if you work in a formal company, all female employees will have their birth insurance paid. It contains the birth surgery fee and the regular antenal care/check fee. It’s not too much and enough for the most family need.

lalala2004

@chinesemum yeah, the US is pretty much the worst country when it comes to maternity leave. 6 weeks unpaid is all that’s guaranteed by the government, just to hold your job, and some companies are exempt from that, even. Fortunately some companies offer paid leave and there is also insurance that can help offset the cost as well.

Many people in the US don’t have family that can help watch their children, and so they have to pay for someone to watch their children when they return to work. I’m lucky in that my mom does watch my son (this is my second baby), but I only work part time. I also pay my mom a bit, because she quit working to do this for me!

ssthomps

Some Daycare’s will take the baby at 3 months old. It is basically a facility that provides baby care services, for little ones not in school. My daughter did not begin attending daycare until she was 10 months. This is because I had help from my mother. This isn’t something that could be long term, because my mother does not live in the same state. So my daughter going to daycare was inevitable. I am just grateful she didn’t have to attend until she was 10 months old. 

As far as birth insurance goes it is rare that you will find a company that pays for your for this/medical. We usually pay out of our paycheck and to cover a family is costly. Also my company does not pay for what we call maternity leave. I have to pay monthly for short term disability in order for me to receive an income while I am home with the baby. 4 months off paid is really good. 

mollgrl06

FMLA in the US protects your job if you take up to 12 weeks unpaid in a rolling calendar year for an employee with at least 1 year seniority, working full time (1240 hours/year), at a company with 50 or more employees. I don’t know where the 6 weeks comes from for your specific situation. https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/benefits-leave/fmla

mrslittlemac

12 weeks is only if you qualify for FMLA. My position is part time, and I will fall about 100 hours under the requirement even though I've been employed in the same place for 5 years. I've tried making a case with HR; if there is medical necessity I may be able to take an extended leave of absence and stay employed, but they will not hold my exact position. After 5 years working toward this position, it's a difficult thing to give up. 

As for daycare, so far we have gotten by without it. My husband works days and I work nights, so we trade off and our daughter gets to stay home. We'll probably continue this arrangement when the new one arrives. We have no family near enough to help out.

Husband has insurance through his work which costs us about $600 per month in premiums and $3000 in deductible per person for it to start covering medical expenses. 

chinesemum

 @lalala2004 so it looks similar that we all need mum’s help for the baby’s early days. In China, female retire around 50 to 55. That means most pregnancy women’s mums are retired and luckily most of them are willing to sacrifice and take care of her daughter’s baby. Some family will get pay their mum and some won’t. It depends on financial situation. My mum says she is not quite interested in looking after my baby but she won’t mind to help if I really need. That’s really thankful.

chinesemum

@ssthomps Baby care center is really a good help. Better than hire a nanny at home. So how does the short term disablilty payment work? You pay monthly and receive all you money back during maternity leave? It sounds likes a self-paid insurance right?

lalala2004

mollgrl06 said:

FMLA in the US protects your job if you take up to 12 weeks unpaid in a rolling calendar year for an employee with at least 1 year seniority, working full time (1240 hours/year), at a company with 50 or more employees. I don’t know where the 6 weeks comes from for your specific situation. https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/benefits-leave/fmla

Oh yeah, I knew that. A lot of STD insurance pays out 6 weeks for a vaginal birth, so I was confusing the two numbers.

deziraywatt

In Canada you get 50 weeks paid time off (60% of your wage) as long as you have worked 600 hours. 

chinesemum

deziraywatt said:

In Canada you get 50 weeks paid time off (60% of your wage) as long as you have worked 600 hours. 

That’s good. 50 weeks is quite long! Does it mean you can have 50 weeks maternity leave while having paid?

ecwk

chinesemum said:

deziraywatt said:

In Canada you get 50 weeks paid time off (60% of your wage) as long as you have worked 600 hours. 

That’s good. 50 weeks is quite long! Does it mean you can have 50 weeks maternity leave while having paid?

Yes they get 60% of their regular wage provided they have worked 600 hours.

tops-2

In Australia we are guaranteed 12 months unpaid leave if you have been at your job at least 12 months. The government also gives 18 weeks paid, and you can choose when this is paid (start, middle, end of your leave etc). So I'll be taking about 7 months as we can't afford to be on a single income for the full 12 months

chinesemum

tops-2 said:

In Australia we are guaranteed 12 months unpaid leave if you have been at your job at least 12 months. The government also gives 18 weeks paid, and you can choose when this is paid (start, middle, end of your leave etc). So I'll be taking about 7 months as we can't afford to be on a single income for the full 12 months

18 weeks full paid?

ssthomps

chinesemum said:

@ssthomps Baby care center is really a good help. Better than hire a nanny at home. So how does the short term disablilty payment work? You pay monthly and receive all you money back during maternity leave? It sounds likes a self-paid insurance right?

You could hire a nanny as well but they could be pricey also the kid looses out on peer interactions. As far as short term disability goes you pay a minimum monthly so my is 50.00 a paycheck and I receive a good portion of my salary for the three months that I am not working. 

tops-2

@chinesemum I don't know about everyone but for me I think it's around 80% of my current pay