Groningen Centre for Health Law

Most Dutch mothers go back to work after 16 weeks of paid maternity leave, as regulated in the Act on work and care (Wet arbeid en zorg). They carry their pump (or more often give up breastfeeding), they bring their baby to the nursery/’guestmother’ (or find other arrangements), and they try to focus on their work. It all sounds as if this is working well. But if we scratch beneath the surface, there is a lot of struggle going on in a mother’s psyche.