Why isn't there a way to put aside some of your paid vacation into maternity

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leave? Since most companies do not provide very much paid (if any) maternity leave and most new moms have to juggle and either use all of their earned/saved up vacation time or sick time if they can get justification from their doctor and then eventually run out, wouldn't it be a good idea if women who were planning to have babies could choose to earn vacation or paid time off in a category marked 'maternity leave'? Some people NEVER use their vacation time, and some companies allow you to earn paid time off based off a percentage of total time you work. Therefore, if you work a lot of overtime or come in on your scheduled days off, you will probably earn vacation time faster than someone who skips work often or only works part time. If you were able to funnel time equally into 'regular vacation' and 'maternity leave', after awhile you may have put aside weeks of maternity leave which you could then use without worrying about running out of regular vacation time or having to deal with unpaid leave. Of course you would still have FMLA to extend your time at home but if you couldn't survive without your paycheck, at least you'd have a way to get SOME without fear of no paycheck or losing your job.