Ms. Broome, however, had offered to carry the baby without compensation, though the Pursleys covered her expenses, including maternity clothing.
Managers often ordered female workers to take pregnancy tests, she said, and if they were pregnant, they were immediately fired to help the company save on medical expenses and maternity leave.
Ms. Conners, who has lived at the Astoria Houses for eight years, said her troubles began after her son was born in May 2009 and she had to rely on disability checks to cover her expenses while on maternity leave from a job as a medical biller at a nonprofit AIDS center.
Many small companies, even those that understand the value of extended leave, have a difficult time managing the expenses associated with maternity leave.
Sick newborn care is frequently not covered by maternity packages or maternal health financing schemes (e.g. Nepal vouchers scheme), yet has potentially large expenses associated with it.
Enhanced paternity pay or enhanced SPL might come at the expense of reduced maternity packages, he said.
Many employers are choosing not to hire women in an economy where there is an oversupply of labor and women are perceived as bringing additional expense in the form of maternity leave and childbirth costs.
It would fail, for example, if it lacks emergency-room or maternity coverage, or imposes crippling out-of-pocket expenses, or the sort of caps that mean people paying premiums end up bankrupt anyway.
Costs outside the hospital, such as GP care, midwife and maternity care, productivity losses and out-of-pocket expenses will be obtained by means of a retrospective cost questionnaire with a recall period of 3 months.
Women's health seeking behavior is also influenced by the cost of maternity services and their capacity to cover the expected expenses.
