Graduate Studies

 

Date of Award

Spring 2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Department

Nutrition

First Advisor

Weiwen Chai

Abstract

Understanding the implications of health policy is paramount to support continued execution and further wide-spread distribution. The Department of Defense has made many recent family friendly policy changes in effort to improve the health and morale of the force. Two such policies were analyzed in this study. The first was the change in maternity leave, in 2016, from allotting women six weeks time off to twelve weeks time off in the postpartum period. The second was executed by the Air Force to permit postpartum women a longer duration for their required physical fitness assessment (an increase from six months to twelve months). The current research project consisted of three separate studies with three separate data sets utilizing data from 2011–2019 garnered from various military medical and fitness databases. The objectives of this dissertation were to examine 1) if the attrition rates of active duty women who had children between 2011–2015 and were allowed six weeks of maternity leave differed from those active duty women who had children between 2016–2019 and were allowed twelve weeks of maternity leave; 2) If physical fitness performance (military physical readiness) differed between active duty Air Force women who had children between 2011–February 2015 (6-month test) and those who had children between March 2015–2019 (12-month test) as evidenced by physical fitness test results; 3) If active duty Air Force women retained weight and waist circumference increases after twenty-four months postpartum; 4) If the rate of postpartum depression differed between active duty women who had children between 2011–2015 (6 weeks of maternity leave) and active duty women who had children between 2016–2019 (12 weeks of maternity leave). The results of this research indicate; 1) women attritted at lower rates when provided longer maternity leave; 2) Air Force active duty women who were allotted a greater duration between delivery and physical fitness testing were less likely to fail their initial postpartum physical fitness test (had better postpartum military physical readiness); 3) postpartum anthropometric retention was prevalent in all Air Force active duty women regardless of physical testing requirements; 4) after the initial implementation of longer postpartum leave time, active duty women had lower incidence of postpartum depression.

Comments

Copyright 2024, Minette Herrick. Used by permission

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this dissertation are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the United States Air Force, United States Department of Defense, or the United States Government

The results presented in chapters 2-4 have been published in Military Medicine:

Chapter 2: Minette S. R. Herrick and Weiwen Chai. Increasing Maternity Leave and Decreasing Attrition Rates of U.S. Active Duty Women in the Prenatal and Immediate Postpartum Period. Military Medicine (November-December 2023) 188(11-12): e3532–e3538, doi: 10.1093/milmed/usad146

Chapter 3: Minette S. R. Herrick and Weiwen Chai. Extending Air Force Physical Fitness Postpartum Dwell Time Improves Maternal Physical Readiness. Military Medicine (2023), doi: 10.1093/milmed/usad456

Chapter 4: Minette S. R. Herrick and Weiwen Chai. Incidence of Postpartum Depression Decreases After Initial Expansion of Military Maternity Leave. Military Medicine (2023), doi: 10.1093/milmed/usad354

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