Health Care

Parental Leave

The authorized absence from work of either parent prior to and after the birth of their child. It includes also absence because of the illness of a child or at the time of the adoption of a child. It does not include leave for care of siblings, parents, or other family members: for this FAMILY LEAVE is available.

National Library of MedicineMedical Subject Headings2026

Structured Summary

Abstract

The authorized absence from work of either parent prior to and after the birth of their child. It includes also absence because of the illness of a child or at the time of the adoption of a child. It does not include leave for care of siblings, parents, or other family members: for this FAMILY LEAVE is available.

MeSH Record

Classification

Broader headings

Related Concepts

Knowledge Graph

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MeSH Record

Synonyms

5 entry terms
  • Leave, Parental
  • Maternity Leave
  • Paternity Leave
  • Leave, Maternity
  • Leave, Paternity

MeSH Record

Aspects Covered

8 allowable subheadings

Indexed with the subheadings classification, economics, ethics, history, legislation & jurisprudence, standards, statistics & numerical data, trends.

MeSH Record

Indexing Annotation

prenatal & postnatal leave, leave for illness of a child or leave for adoption procedures; do not confuse with FAMILY LEAVE: see MeSH definition

MeSH Record

History Note

92

MeSH Record

Previous Indexing

  • Pregnancy (1978-1990)
  • Salaries and Fringe Benefits (1981-1990)

MeSH Hierarchy

Tree Numbers

  1. N01.824w.417w.700w.162.500w
  2. N04w.452.677w.800w.162.500w

AMA Style

References

  1. National Library of Medicine. Parental Leave. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). 2026. Unique ID D016524. http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/2026/D016524
  2. Parental Leave. In: Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave
  3. Parental Leave. In: Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q772989