"It was wonderful being entirely present for the first 3 months of her life" A father's perspective
Published: 21 September 2020
IHW and Mental Health and Wellbeing's Dr Samuel Leighton reflects on his recent experience of taking shared parental leave (the first in IHW to do so!)
Shared parental leave allows parents to convert maternity or adoption leave into leave that can be shared between both parents as they wish, in order to share the care of their child during the first year.
In 2020, Mental Health and Wellbeing's Samuel Leighton became the first person in IHW to take up the option of shared parental leave, and reflects here on his family's experience.
My wife, Danielle, and I recently welcomed our daughter, Hannah, into the world in July 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic.
We are both clinical lecturers at University of Glasgow. If we were lucky enough to have a child, we had always planned to share our parenting roles as equally as possible, excluding the physical impossibilities of giving birth and breastfeeding! To that end, we were keen to explore the option of shared parental leave.
I am delighted to report that the process to arrange the shared leave was almost painless barring a few forms. IHW and my PhD supervisor were both entirely supportive. We had initially planned to split our leave 50:50 but the pandemic meant that we changed our plans slightly. We decided to take the initial three months together, then my wife would continue on parental leave while I would return to work. The reason being was that due to the pandemic, I was working at home, but my wife would have to return to frontline NHS work with all the anxieties that potential exposure to the virus would bring. Changing our plans midway through the shared parental leave was also almost seamless.
It was wonderful being entirely present for the first three months of Hannah’s life, seeing her change and grow day by day. Danielle and I both appreciated having each other around to share the enjoyment and to support each other through any challenges that being a new parent brings. The only potential downside is that, when taking shared parental leave, the couple share the mother’s allocated maternity leave (plus your two weeks paternity leave). That is, you do not get extra leave.
Altogether, I would recommend the option of shared leave to any prospective parents.
Dr Samuel Leighton
Clinical Lecturer in General Psychiatry (Mental Health and Wellbeing)
Find out more about UofG's shared parental leave policy
First published: 21 September 2020
<< May 2021
