I'm not prescribing what the duration should be, surely there is some middle ground between zero and a year. Where I am currently living (NL) it is a few month

I'm not prescribing what the duration should be, surely there is some middle ground between zero and a year. Where I am currently living (NL) it is a few months (three I believe), happily paid for by the taxpayers. Where I lived before (US-CA) it was a few weeks of partially paid leave, paid by the employer. I'm also not completely convinced that the weeks surrounding a childbirth are the most productive working weeks.