【2012 Archives】

Nine months of pregnancy012 Archivesmore than enough for most people. Now imagine being forced to carry a baby until it was six years old.

That’s the shocking premise of a satirical new PSA that was made to support a national paid family leave law. It features Lauren, a fictional paralegal in Denver, who is meant to be 240 weeks pregnant. (About 5 ½ years along, if you don’t feel like doing the math.) Yeeeeouch.

Obviously that’s not biologically possible -- and thank goodness for that -- but in this surreal scenario Lauren has chosen to stay pregnant because she and her husband don’t have any paid leave and can’t afford to take time off after the baby is born. So her best move is to delay the birth until she’s saved up enough vacation and sick days.

It's a terrifying reality, but the ad manages to inject plenty of humor into the situation too. Vicki Shabo, of the National Partnership for Women & Families, which made the spot, says it's meant to convey, “the absurd reality too many working people and families face.” And it works.

You'll probably be very much in favor of paid leave once you contemplate how it would feel to have a toddler make themselves at home in your abdomen.

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