Navigating parental leave policies can feel like an unsolveable puzzle, but the benefits are real. Motherly is here for you with advice and essays from real mamas.

1. Children need bonding time.

1. Set expectations with your boss.

It's okay to miss work, and it's okay to miss your baby.

Football player Jalen Ramsey should be applauded, not attacked, for taking leave.

Most dads in Spain have been getting two weeks of parental leave since 2007, and the amount was doubled to four weeks in 2017. In 2018, the dads got another extra week and more increases are expected.

You'll want to bookmark this one, mama!

Oregon's new paid leave law means some moms will have their whole paychecks while recovering from birth ????

"We all agreed on the need to pass this landmark support for working families so they don't have to choose between the job they need and the family they love, or their own health," Lamont said.

Here are five significant ways we are *all* impacted when dads take paid leave.

"Gender equality is under attack," says Canadian Prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Time to take this kind of thinking national.

Because fathers are parents, too.

It's going to be really hard.

Parents will get longer leave and more money starting in July 2020.

It occurs to me that this ritual is the first of many symbolic cords we will cut.

4. Admitting that you're struggling isn't a sign of weakness

I was pretty sure my son would be okay, but I was a whole lot less sure that I would.

Senator Tammy Duckworth proves it. When we have more mothers in power, more mothers can be empowered.