A mother has faced a major backlash after ranting about being forced to return to her job 18 weeks after giving birth.
28-year-old Nikkole Ledda is a former ’16 and Pregnant’ star and a mother-of-three who went viral after complaining about having to return to work ‘too soon’ after giving birth.
The Michigan mom gave birth to baby Bodhi, her third child, in July 2021. Four-and-a-half months later, however, she had to resume her job at a manufacturing factory where she works 10-hour shifts.
While the maternity law in the States requires companies to give at least 12 weeks of unpaid leave to new mothers, anything more than that is up to the agreement between the employee and the employer.
“Tomorrow I go back to work after 18 weeks off with my baby. Everyone tells me I should be happy to have a life outside of being a mom,” the 28-year-old wrote in the caption of her video in which she’s seen cradling her baby and crying.
“But I’m not happy, I’m heartbroken. I’m going from nursing, cuddling, and loving my sweet baby every day to having a machine suck the milk out of me while I sit in a cold room.
“And only getting to be with my baby three hours a day. How is that supposed to make me happy?”
The video quickly went viral with plenty of viewers expressing their support for the mom-of-three. Many viewers from across the sea also expressed their shock over the “terrible” maternity laws in the USA.
Some people, however, were quick to slam the mom and suggest many people get even less than that.
“Why have a baby then if you knew you’d end up in a situation you’re not happy with?! I’m sick of women who have kids moaning! At least you’ve got kids- some of us can’t & will never have what you have!” one person wrote.
“She’s looking for sympathy and money. I could only afford to have one child. So that’s what it did. These young mothers want a whole litter and want the rest of the world to make it easy for them financially,” another said.
The third wrote: “My work told me I get 6-8 weeks. Be glad you got what you did.”
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