Join us for IWPR’s 2026 Power+ Summit, The Power Grid: Driving Gender Equity Forward, taking place September 28–29 in Detroit, MI.
Together, we will spark bold ideas, share breakthroughs, and shape the future of gender equity.
To answer that question, CNN reviewed more than 20 studies on the health impacts of parental leave on parent and child and talked to a handful of researchers. What we found is that most studies come to the same conclusion: Paid parental leave can have a significant positive effect on the health of children and mothers.
“Having paid leave makes economic and health sense,” said Ariane Hegewisch , a study director for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, which released a report in 2014 summarizing the research on paid leave. “I think our report, in a way, supports a cost-benefit analysis of paid leave to say there are a lot of benefits.”