Develop support for parenthood, extend paternity leave to nine weeks, better treat postpartum depression: in a report submitted to the government on Tuesday, a commission of experts, chaired by child psychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik, recommends providing support to young children and their parents a "
priority of public action
".
Read also: Adrien Taquet is considering making paternity leave compulsory
The key idea of this work is that children, and therefore the future adults they will become, are "
shaped by the environment in which they grow up
", but that "
we can act
" on this environment and thus "
help them. to develop as well as possible,
”Cyrulnik told AFP.
The proposals resulting from this report on the “
first 1000 days of the child
” - from the fourth month of pregnancy to the second birthday - will be “
assessed
” by the government, and will give rise to “
announcements by the end of the month.
», Said the Secretary of State for Children and Families, Adrien Taquet.
Measures could be included in the 2021 social security financing bill (PLFSS), he added.
Already, "
certain recommended elements have caught our attention,
" the Secretary of State told AFP, citing in particular the need to better communicate public health messages to parents "
sometimes a little lost, forced to seek answers on social networks
”, to strengthen support for families to better“
detect weaknesses
”, or to extend paternity leave.
This point is one of the recommendations likely to be the most commented on in the Cyrulnik report: convinced that "
it takes time, availability and physical and emotional closeness on the part of parents for them to build with their baby a harmonious relationship
”, the authors recommend increasing the paternity leave to nine weeks, instead of 11 days currently.
"
A part could be taken after the birth and the other part at the end of maternal leave
".
Mr. Taquet did not specify whether this point would appear in the next announcements.
In June, Marlène Schiappa, then Secretary of State for Gender Equality, affirmed the government's intention to extend paternity leave, but without specifying the duration.
