A mother of two has gone viral after sharing a tearful selfie on LinkedIn, describing the agony of returning to work before she felt ready after giving birth. Rachael Larsen, from Salt Lake City, posted the photograph taken four years ago on her first day back after her second daughter was born, writing about the pressure to 'suck it up' as the main income earner for her family.
In the post, which has prompted widespread debate, Ms Larsen described waking up five times the night before to feed her fussy baby and feeling exhausted. 'The shame around raising a family and working full-time is real,' she wrote. 'My daughter wasn't ready. I wasn't ready.'
The post has reignited discussions about parental leave policies in the United States, which remains the only country among 41 nations surveyed by the OECD that mandates no paid time off for new parents. Estonia offers the most generous provision with 86 weeks of paid leave, while the shortest among the other nations is two months.
One commenter, Marta Tubielewicz, who moved from Poland to the US, described the American approach as a 'culture shock', noting that Poland grants women between eight months and two years of paid leave. Ms Larsen said she shared the photo on LinkedIn to encourage honesty among colleagues, adding: 'We are humans, not robots.'
