[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 21 (Tuesday, February 7, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E162-E163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                DR. OGLESBY YOUNG CONCORD MONITOR OP-ED

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANN M. KUSTER

                            of new hampshire

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 7, 2017

  Ms. KUSTER of New Hampshire. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an 
op-ed by Dr. Oglesby Young as published in the Concord Monitor.


       my turn: paid family leave is the investment of a lifetime

       A pediatric colleague once said, ``We can invest in early 
     childhood or we can build more prisons 20 years later at a 
     much greater cost to society.''
       A bill, presently before the state Legislature (HB 628), is 
     a plan for an Employer Based Insurance Program to provide 
     ``paid family leave.'' I believe this is an opportunity to 
     invest in early childhood in order to create a healthier, 
     more productive and caring society.
       Barry Brazelton, now a 95-year-old Boston pediatrician and 
     researcher, established a half-century ago how critical 
     newborn bonding is for the baby and the parents. The 
     development of ``attachment'' from the start of life, 
     profoundly affects the relationship between the child and his 
     or her new parents.
       It follows that the first few years, even the first few 
     months, of life lasts forever. We have a compelling biologic 
     model of why kids who have experienced the toxic stress of 
     neglect--the absence of love, as simple as cuddling--have 
     trouble learning. A Harvard pediatrician, Jack Shonkoff, 
     states simply, ``We can modify behavior late, but we can't 
     rewire disrupted brain circuits.''
       Years ago, I remember seeing the MRI scans of the brains of 
     children who were completely neglected in an Eastern European 
     orphanage. There were large areas of atrophy (no brain 
     tissue), which had resulted from a lack of love and 
     stimulation of these children early in their lives.
       As obstetricians, we see new moms routinely for their 
     postpartum visits six weeks after the delivery of their 
     babies. Most are just learning how to be a parent. Their 
     bodies are still healing, while they are torn between the 
     challenges of being a new mom and returning to the demands of 
     an old job.
       I realized early in my career that we could devote 
     ourselves to delivering healthy babies, but it would mean 
     nothing if we did not care for the mom and newborn when we 
     sent them home from the hospital. Those of us who have 
     children know that no matter how well-educated or how well-
     motivated, the experience of having a first child at times 
     can be overwhelming.
       Babies are not born with instructions. We all want to be 
     good parents, but not all of us have had good modeling, and 
     not all of us have the resources to be the parents we want to 
     be.
       Many new moms are single today with no support. 
     Grandparents work and they often live elsewhere. In my 
     lifetime neighborhoods have changed. There is no longer a 
     woman down the street who has had six kids and welcomes the 
     opportunity to help a new mom as she was once helped. For 
     these reasons, 20 years ago, we established the Healthy 
     Beginnings Endowment at Concord Hospital, raising $1.3 
     million to award grants annually to Concord area programs 
     that support and educate new parents.
       Physicians have been the most generous donors to this 
     endowment because they understand the wisdom of investing in 
     early childhood to prevent adult problems. The upshot is that 
     children who are undermined

[[Page E163]]

     early are much more likely in later years to suffer mental 
     illness, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and other physical 
     ailments.
       The bill before us, HB 628, would give time and financial 
     support at very little cost, to permit new parents to 
     establish an attachment to their baby that would pay 
     dividends over the lifetime of their child. We are one of the 
     few developed countries in the world that does not provide 
     this benefit to new parents.
       In England, my daughter-in-law was given nine months of 
     paid maternity leave when she had our granddaughter. In 
     France, our former exchange student was awarded six months of 
     paid leave, as was her husband, following the birth of each 
     of their three children. In Germany, a close friend's 
     daughter had one year of paid maternity leave and her husband 
     three months after their first baby. It should not surprise 
     us that the people of those countries are healthier and live 
     longer than us (even though Europeans drink and smoke more 
     than us). And, remarkably their health care costs amount to 
     half of what we spend per person in this country.
       The implication is that the most cost-effective window to 
     bring about change in the health and welfare of a country 
     isn't high school or even kindergarten. It is the early 
     childhood years, and it can be done at a relatively low cost, 
     when compared to the later financial burden of adult health 
     care.
       Presently, we have a ravaging substance abuse crisis into 
     which we are pouring millions of dollars to treat and 
     rehabilitate those afflicted. It seems, almost every week, we 
     read in the Concord Monitor about another young person whose 
     life has been lost to overdose. Is there a better example 
     today that an ``ounce of prevention would save pounds of 
     cure''?
       If we are to have healthy, responsible, kind adults--young 
     people who choose not to abuse themselves or others--we must 
     first create kids with a deep sense of self worth, a strong 
     respect for themselves and others. Adults who love well have 
     been children who were well-loved. Adults who care deeply 
     about others and our world were children who were deeply 
     cared for.
       The crucial value of ``paid family leave'' is that it would 
     it would provide parents to start their child on the path to 
     a successful adulthood.
       I recently read the book Find Me Unafraid: Love, Loss and 
     Hope in an African Slum. The author, Kennedy Odede, overcame 
     a late childhood fraught with constant hunger, complete 
     poverty and physical abuse. He writes, ``As a young child, I 
     knew how much my mother loved me. When I was on the streets, 
     I thought of what my mom had told me, that no matter where I 
     was in the world, if I could see the stars, I should know 
     that she could see them, too, and I felt her love always.''
       Kennedy Odede is an adult now, who has returned to his 
     impoverished Nairobi slum and created a school for girls and 
     a community organization called Shining Hope for Communities. 
     In spite of a cruel childhood, except for his first three 
     years of life, he has become a successful, productive, happy 
     adult who is devoted to improving his old neighborhood, his 
     world. Paid family leave is fundamental to a healthy society 
     because it provides the framework for a precious, priceless 
     early childhood--the foundation on which responsible, loving 
     adults grow. For those of you who believe we cannot afford 
     paid family leave, I would argue that we can't afford not to 
     provide paid family leave. The future of our society surely 
     rests on this wise investment.
       (Dr. Oglesby H. Young lives in Concord.)

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