The assumptions of the project were presented by the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk during a Friday meeting with the social side - with parents of premature babies and representatives of the Together for Premature Babies Nationwide Alliance - at a branch of the Bielański Cultural Centre in Warsaw.

Giving time back to parents

The symbolic gift for parents on the eve of Mother's Day, although it is something they simply deserve, is time. (...) The time that today is called maternity leave, although it has nothing to do with leave. That is because it's hard to imagine that a mum or parent who is standing by an incubator, or who is visiting a baby in hospital, worrying about how the baby will develop, whether it will live, whether it will be healthy - can think about resting and enjoying this parenthood. It is not a holiday leave, it is often a fight for health, for life, it is a huge stress and a huge fear," said Minister Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk during the meeting.

The head of the family ministry thanked the Together for Premature Babies Nationwide Alliance for its impetus for action and for working together to change the law within the working group.

A strong state is not a state that bows to the bigger and the biggest. For me, as Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy, it is a state that does not forget the least of these. And it's hard to imagine anyone less than a premature baby, the minister stressed.

Additional maternity leave

The additional maternity leave being introduced will be:

• used immediately after maternity leave by employed parents of children born prematurely and employed parents of children born on time but requiring hospitalisation,
• optional,
• granted on request,
• used in one part,
• the proposed regulations will apply to adoptive parents and foster families respectively.

The allowance for the period of additional maternity leave will be 100 per cent of the allowance base.

For whom is the additional leave?

Those entitled to additional maternity leave will be:

• employees-parents of children born before the 28th week of pregnancy or with a birth weight of 1,000g or less,
• employees-parents of children born after the 28th week of pregnancy and before the 36th week of pregnancy and with a birth weight of more than 1,000 g and
• employees-parents of children born after the end of the 36th week of pregnancy whose child will require hospitalisation from the 5th day from the day of birth until the end of the 8th week after birth. Additional maternity leave will then be granted in the amount of one week of additional maternity leave for each week of the child's stay in hospital between the 5th day after birth and the end of the 8th week after birth, provided that the child's stay in hospital is at least 2 consecutive days between the 5th and 28th day after birth.

Importantly, leave is to be granted to mothers or fathers, as well as legal guardians, foster or adoptive parents.

8 or 15 weeks?

The length of the additional maternity leave will be up to 8 or up to 15 weeks respectively, depending on the length of the child's hospitalisation, the week of pregnancy in which the child is born or the child's birth weight.

The duration of additional maternity leave:

• employees-parents of children born before the end of the 28th week of pregnancy or with a birth weight of 1,000g or less will be granted additional maternity leave based on the duration of the child's hospitalisation, in the amount of one week's additional maternity leave for each week of the child's hospitalisation up to the end of the 15th week after birth - a maximum of 15 weeks,
• employees-parents of a child born after the 28th week of pregnancy and before the 36th week of pregnancy and with a birth weight of more than 1,000g will be granted one week of additional maternity leave for each week of the child's stay in hospital until the end of the 8th week after birth - a maximum of 8 weeks,
• employees-parents whose child is born after the end of the 36th week of pregnancy and requires hospitalisation from the 5th day after birth until the end of the 8th week after birth, will be entitled to one week of additional maternity leave for each week of hospitalisation of the child in the period from the 5th day after birth until the end of the 8th week after birth, provided that the hospitalisation of the child is for at least 2 consecutive days in the period from the 5th to the 28th day after birth.  Thus, in order for an employee to be entitled to additional maternity leave, the child must be hospitalised between the 5th and the 28th day after birth for at least 2 consecutive days. If the hospitalisation occurs on the 29th day after birth and the child has left the hospital 3 days after the birth, the employee will not be entitled to additional maternity leave.

In determining the amount of additional maternity leave, periods of hospitalisation of the child up to the end of the 8th week or the 15th week after birth will be added together and an incomplete week will be rounded up to the whole week. This regulation takes into account the intervals between the child's subsequent hospitalisations.

What about leave for parents being employed in uniformed services?

In order to ensure that everyone, including officers of the Customs and Fiscal Service, officers of the Police, the Fire Department, the Military Counter-Intelligence Service and the Military Intelligence Service, the Border Guard, the Prison Service, the State Protection Office, the Marshal Guard, the Internal Security Agency, the Intelligence Agency, Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, professional soldiers, teachers, farmers has the right to additional parental entitlement, and to ensure the possibility to adjust regulations remaining within the competence of other Ministers, they were requested to submit amendments to their laws, adapting them to the proposed changes.

Accordingly, the proposed law has also been extended to include changes to service pragmatics.

A promise kept

In December 2023, a petition was submitted to the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk on granting mothers of premature babies and newborns requiring hospitalisation full paid sick leave for childcare until the infant is discharged home. On the initiative of the Minister, the first meeting with the social side represented by the “Coalition for the Premature Baby” Foundation took place on January 9, 2024, resulting in the establishment of a Team for the development of solutions on parental entitlements for parents of premature babies and babies hospitalised after birth.

The Team's meetings were attended by, among others, neonatologists, paediatricians, representatives of the social side, the Ombudsman for Children’s Rights, the Ombudsman for Civil Rights, representatives of the Ministry of Health and all directly interested parties. 

At the meeting, Minister Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk received a gift - an angel - from Elżbieta Brzozowska of the “Coalition for the Premature Baby” Foundation to thank for her work on extending leave for parents of premature babies.