新生兒的誕生，是一種喜悅，也是一種壓力，對為人父母者而言，尤其是職業婦女，無疑從此陷入工作壓力與育兒義務間的拉鋸戰中。根據美國最新的研究統計指出，有超過半數的美國懷孕分娩女性，都是職業婦女，其中有一半以上的職業婦女，在生產後三個月內立即回到工作崗位。造成許多職業婦女不得不提前回復上班，是因為假期過短或經濟上壓力使然。美國現行的育嬰休假政策是否符合了美國嬰兒與母親的最大利益？其他工業先進國家究竟提供了那些福利予新生兒及父母？美國現行育嬰休假政策措施究竟有多落後他國？
雖然生養育兒的壓力普世皆然，然而各國在支助新生兒父母的育嬰休假政策與制度設計卻各異其趣，其中要屬歐洲工業先進國家對初為人父母者長期以來所作的關注與提供的育嬰休假福利最為優渥，在在最值得美國學習。本研究希冀透過跨國比較歐美先進國家育嬰休假政策內涵與作為之差異，深入瞭解影響各國育嬰休假政策與立法制訂的真正關鍵因素為何，以作為美國未來改進育嬰休假政策內涵與作法的借鏡。

The birth of a new child not only brings pleasure but also tension between the obligations of work and child rearing for new parents, particularly mothers. A recent statistical report points out that more than half of all U.S. mothers were employed when they gave birth and more than half returned to work within three months of giving birth. Many of these mothers returned to work sooner than they would have liked because their right to leave was brief or because of financial pressure. Does the current U.S. parental leave policy operate in the best interests of the child and the mother? What opportunities are parents in other industrialized European countries offered? To what extent has the United States lagged behind other industrialized nations in this measure?
The pleasures and pressures of caring for a newborn are universal, but there is a good deal of variation across countries in the types of policies that governments enact to support new parents. In several industrialized European countries, decades of attention to benefits and services for new parents offer lessons for the U.S. The primary purpose of this research is to examine the relative merits of different policies toward parental leave and childcare offered by industrialized nations in Europe. In addition, this study also hopes to find the influencing factors that explain the variance in parental leave policies among these different countries and to draw lessons for the future direction of the U.S. policy.