Lisa Kudrow Had to Return to Work 10 Days After Giving Birth and Got No Maternity Leave in the 1990s: ‘It’s Insane. I Would Never Do It Now’

> “I had given birth to my son, and 10 days later I did ‘The Tonight Show,” Kudrow said. “And then I was in a meeting for ‘Analyze This,’ and my agents were like: ‘Yeah, we’ll be ok, you’re not shooting until July, and it’s May, it’s no big deal.’ I was like: ‘Ok, yeah, I might be by then…’ In the meeting, Billy Crystal said, ‘I mean, you look great, are you sure you’re able to do this? When did you give birth?’ And I told him, and he’s like: ‘Alright, well, we start Thursday.'” > “It was: ‘So today’s Monday, and then Thursday you have to fly to New York,’” she said. “I remember my husband’s parents were visiting from France, my parents were around, everyone around me went: ‘Of course you can do it,’ and I said: ‘But it’s wrong, I have a newborn!’ ‘… ‘But a baby nurse will go with you, look after the baby, baby won’t remember anything, it’s fine… you go do it.’ I went: ‘Alright, I don’t know,’ like, you know, your hormones are just like… ‘Alright, I mean, I guess!’” > “It’s insane,” Kudrow summarized. “I would never do it now. I thought this was insane. Everybody else thought [it’s fine]… I just deferred to everybody else and thought, ‘I guess it’s okay to go back to work immediately.’ I’m not mad at anybody. It was at a time when work was priority and everything else has to accommodate. That was sort of the ethos at that time.”

This is still quite normal in the US. I gave birth the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and had to be at work the following Monday, 4th degree tear and all.  Yay maternity leave! 

There are a lot of people who have stories like this and its honestly sad as hell. Childbirth is already so stressful and post partum such an issue and your job just wants you back for more.

The belief that the US is the best country in the world, and the best place to live, has been a lie since day one. I used to visit friends and family there and the more I heard, the less I could believe they bought it. I’d try to point out what I thought was obvious, the benefits of maternity leave, universal healthcare, subsidized university education, the list goes on and on, but nope, they had FREEDOM. Which as far as I could tell, meant freedom from high taxes, and that looked about all.

the US being one of the only developed countries with no federal paid maternity leave makes this less of a "90s were wild" story and more of a "we just never fixed it" story.

Now I work for tech company in California and my coworkers,  moms and dads, take months of paid time off. They work from home, pumping or nursing, and have family or nanny or daycare center depending on what suits their family’s needs. They have breast pumps covered by insurance.  I don’t tell them what it was like when I worked in a hotel and had my babies. I quietly celebrate that they’ll never know what that was like, quietly celebrate the progress we’ve made for some moms and their babies in the US.   I appreciate Lisa Kudrow telling her story 

My attorney friends in private practice in the 1990s? They all did this. Yes, it was inhumane

Well it’s easy to say she wouldn’t do it now - she’s a well established multi-millionaire, she doesn’t need to. But at that time she clearly did need to do it to maintain her career so she could possibly have discussed that aspect in addition to the millions of normal women who need to return to work so soon after giving birth. In Canada and so many other countries, we don’t need to worry about this (anymore), thankfully.

If you were an A list actor with the #1 show on TV, making $1,000,000 an episode. Your ass would be at work.

What about women who are in the working class and don't get any maternity leave at all? You know, working for big companies where you deliver your baby and they expect you to be back at work the next day? Or they lay you off because you had a child and they don't want to give you any leave? This is a daily occurrence in the USA

I had to go back to work when my son was 4 weeks old. It was that or lose my job

im a male in the us, and i get 12 weeks

Truly wild that things are this way in the US. I’m in one of the best states for paid parental leave, and even then it’s still a far cry from what the rest of the modern world gets.

Unfortunately I think that was public perception at the time. My mother said the same thing and how she would never had done it now if she had known better but she went along with what everyone else said.

So no one told her it was gonna be this way?

I feel bad that she didn't get maternity leave but then I realise that she got millions and millions of dollars instead.

You mean she had to do the same thing that the vast majority of us Americans have to do? Pretty much every company I’ve ever worked for doesn’t give new moms or dad’s more than two weeks after birth before they have to return. Some are even less. Sorry Lisa, but that’s the way it is for the majority of folks.

I read that the cast members of Friends still make over $20million a year in residuals. So maybe I don’t feel too bad for her.

I feel for her when she tells this story. I really relate to feeling like you’re crazy bc you want to advocate for yourself. But everyone around you, including the ppl dearest to you, push you in the opposite direction. And you don’t have the tools yet to stand up for yourself own intuition. And so she did what seems the logical thing on paper (huge movie with major movie stars, legendary director, maybe huge paycheck who knows?) But in the end it’s like, who cares that she was in that movie? Granted I haven’t seen it since it came out, I’m sure she was delightful in it. But maybe could have been played by someone else without much change to the overall project? She has played several legendary characters all on her own, she didn’t need Analyze That. In the rear view mirror it maybe would’ve meant so much more to her to have that time with her son. Or… maybe not! Who knows. But that’s what I hear by her saying this.

Shockingly common. Leave does not apply to small businesses and independent contractors. When I worked in advertising, I had to tell our PM that she only had 2 weeks paid vacation for the year, so that was all HR would pay for. Just awful.

I’ve been seeing Lisa Kudrow a ton lately

I went back to work 3 weeks later due to unpaid maternity leave and that was in the 2010s

I remember hearing and reading stores like this and thinking “damn. That’s crazy and sad” then I had a baby and my heart literally is torn to pieces. This should be no one’s reality. Everyone deserves time with their baby and baby deserves time with them.

I had three weeks in 2007

I’m watching her show on HBOMAX THE COMEBACK at first it was a little boring for the first season but season two was okay.

She only got millions and billions of dollars and that's fucked up. She "wouldnt do it now" : yeah that's cuz shes already super wealthy set for life and her kids kids kids

What happens when You trade your basic needs for money

I mean it sucks but I struggle to feel bad for a rich person being a working mother the same as I do a regular woman

Didnt they write the entire script around that?

Awe, just like non celebrity women must deal with.

Hang on, that was her decision, absolutely no one forced her! She is literally self employed.

Now that I have tens of millions I would never do what people are forced to do

Is she whining about making millions of dollars and being asked to come back to work for millions of dollars- in America people are forced to that for 22/ hr. If you’re going to whine about it atleast become an advocate for women that go through this for poverty level wages without the best doctors, therapists, nutrionists, and agents. Jeeez get a clue lady

Lisa Kudrow was/is a multi-millionaire. She makes $20 million dollars a year on Friends residuals alone. She needs to shut up. Some of us are trying to make a living.

Does she not have a PR team 

Were on the cusp of WWIII and this is at the top of the news feed who gives a shit about this washed up hag or the shittiest sitcom ever friends

She couldn’t do it now; she’s on Medicare. Haha

Imagine having to sit down and talk to someone ohhhh the pain and agony it must have been to do the easiest shit in the world. I feel for people who have to go back to real jobs not these f****** prick who whine while getting paid a shit load to do the f****** barest of minimum