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Short Maternity Leaves, Long Deployments
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The challenges are exacerbated today because far more women and couples with children are serving. Nearly 40 percent of women on active duty have children.
Women make up about 15 percent of today's military, and about half of them have deployed for the anti-terrorism campaign at least once since 2001, and more than 25,000 are deployed in that fight now.
The men who serve miss out, too, but they have a chance, with careful timing, to deploy while their wives are pregnant and return for much of the child's first year.
Over a chow-hall meal at another Baghdad camp, Sgt. Georgette Oakley, 27, described how she had to leave behind five children and stepchildren from a blended family. Oakley said she and her husband, also an Army sergeant, want to have another baby, but they will not be able to until at least 2009. "Once we both get back, we'll have one together," she said.
About 10 percent of women in the military become pregnant each year, and an estimated 75,000 military offspring are younger than 1, according to the Government Accountability Office. Pregnant soldiers have the option of leaving the service, although some officers are required to first complete their remaining service obligation; all are prohibited from deploying until four months after delivery, unless granted a waiver.
"Without women we would not make our volunteer numbers, so if we destroy the interest of women to volunteer it puts us in a particularly bad place, because the nation does not want a draft," said Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, deputy Army surgeon general for force management.
"We need to look at the fact that many women want to serve but they also want to be mothers," Pollock said. "It's a medical issue, it's a mental health issue. Your ability to bond with your children is . . . very important."
Pollock said last summer that she had proposed that the Army double the time women are exempt from deployment from four to eight months, noting that she would prefer 12 months. "That addresses the need for breast-feeding that is important for health, and also allows for optimal bonding time," she said.
So far, Army policy remains unchanged, spokeswoman Cynthia Vaughan said this month. Senior Army officials declined requests to explain the reasoning behind the current policy.
Other services grant longer exemptions, and all have generally shorter deployments: The Navy exemption is 12 months, and the Marine Corps's is six months, and deployments average seven months for both. The Air Force has a four-month exemption, but its deployments average only four to six months.
When Shaw became pregnant and learned that her Army unit would deploy, she had the option of getting out altogether. But she took pride in her work and needed the income. "I'd like to be a stay-at-home mom, but financially it's hard," she said.
So Shaw made what she calls one of the hardest decisions of her life. Six weeks after delivery, on Oct. 13, 2006, she left Connor with a sitter so she could return to weapons training. Then, before her son could sit up, crawl or cut a tooth, Shaw and her husband left for Iraq in early February, leaving Connor with her parents in Wisconsin.
