Becoming a Mother in Graduate School: Funding

Before I got pregnant in December, I spent a long time searching for blogs that spoke on the topic of becoming a parent in graduate school. Much to my disappointment there was very little available and many of the articles that had been written about the topic were not quite glowing. I so badly wanted there to be a magical blog or article telling me it was ok, I wasn't giving academia the middle finger by choosing to start a family - which is a whole different issue I will address in another post - but such perspectives were rare and hard to find. So I knew that when we had a baby on the way I would try my best to share an accurate representation of my experience as a grad school mommy - which I am learning is not paved in gold,because in fact it's not paved at all.

My first draft of this post was really long so I decided to break it up into various topics. The first stop - funding, because this was something I diligently researched before getting pregnant with no fruitful outcome.  In fact before I got pregnant I emailed our HR person to ask about maternity leave, because I am a planner. I generally wanted to know what policy was in place and this was her response:

I would talk directly to your department regarding what time you will need off and also see if some of it may need to be unpaid.

Ok....

Then she sent me a link for some general information for employees. Which was not helpful in the slightest because 1) I don't count as an employee 2) The information she sent back only mentioned sick time, vacation time, jury duty, and holidays. 

This is where things get tricky. Despite the fact that as a PhD  student I receive all of my income from a stipend, I am not an employee. Which is fine by me, I mean call me whatever you want as long as my paycheck shows up. But that means things like sick leave, vacation days, and holidays mean nothing in my world. I took off two weeks for my honeymoon - I didn't check to see how many days I had available to take off. I didn't have to decide if some of these would be paid, if some would be unpaid, or if the fact that it fell over Christmas would mean I was able to use a holiday. I just told my boss that I would be gone and he said "Have a great time." When the holidays roll around our boss has no idea who will be in or what their hours will be. I decide with my lab mates who wants to cover what days and what days we will decide to close the lab down all together. This also means that when I work 7 days a week for 60 hours I get no more than those two weeks I spent on my honeymoon. I guess you could say we are salary in that way, but not really, because remember I am not an employee. 

So when it comes to maternity leave there are no real answers. How much time can I take off? Will it be paid or unpaid? Will insurance still be available to me? There are currently no policies in place at the University of Iowa for maternity leave as a graduate student- which is frustrating and means my answers to these questions are murky at best. Especially when a quick google search will tell you that other Universities have policies in place to support pregnant graduate students (examples of which can be viewed here, here, and here).

Thus at my current institution we are left with a problem wherein there is no consistency from one pregnant graduate student in my department to the next - meaning it's hard to ask for advice. If one person is supported by a national fellowship they will continue to receive their funding during maternity leave and will need to work out with their advisor how much time they can take off. If you are paid by your advisor (as in your are on a research assistantship) they may say you will receive no funding at all while you are on maternity leave. If you are paid as a teaching assistant, things are even more unclear and are dealt with on a case by case basis. 

I luckily, will be supported by a graduate college fellowship in the fall and thus will still receive a pay check for the time I am gone (likely 8 weeks). While I am thankful for this, it does not sit well with me that no one has taken the time to put a policy in place for graduate students who choose to also be parents. And whether they know it or not, not having a policy sends one message to me : This is your problem and graduate school is not a time to be starting a family. Perhaps that is reading too much into things, but for now I just can't seem to draw any other conclusions when the major research institute I am employed by hasn't considered the possibility that women in their mid-late 20's may consider starting a family. 

And although it may be shocking to learn that earning a PhD does not mean your uterus ceases to function - I hope the UI gets the message sooner than later.