IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Military to Announce Changes to Maternity Leave Policy

Defense Secretary Ash Carter will announce Thursday that female service members will now get 12 weeks paid maternity leave.
Image: US Marine servicewomen from 2nd Battalio
U.S. Marine servicewomen from 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines Golf Company, patrol in Basabad, Helmand Province, Afghanistan on March 9, 2011.ADEK BERRY / AFP-Getty Images file
By Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube

Defense Secretary Ash Carter will announce Thursday that female service members will now get 12 weeks paid maternity leave.

This doubles the amount of time women in the Army and Air Force now receive, but cuts six weeks from the leave women in the Navy and Marine Corps have had as a benefit since last summer.

In July the Navy announced that women would get 18 weeks paid maternity leave.

Related: All Combat Roles Now Open to Women, Pentagon Says

Sailors and Marines who are currently on maternity leave, pregnant or who become pregnant within 30 days of today's announcement will still receive the 18 weeks of leave.

Carter will also announce paid paternity leave will increase from 10 days to 14 days. These benefits apply to same-sex married couples and those seeking leave for adoption.

These announcements are part of Carter's "Force of the Future" initiative — changes meant to make service members' lives easier in an attempt to attract and retain the best possible candidates for the U.S. military.

As part of this announcement, the Department of Defense will now pay for egg and sperm freezing for active duty service members, but will not pay the full cost of IVF— some coverage is already covered.

Jim Miklaszewski

Jim Miklaszewski is the chief Pentagon correspondent for NBC News. On 9/11, he was the first at the scene to report that the Pentagon had been attacked and has since led the network's coverage of the war in Afghanistan.

Since joining NBC in 1985, Miklaszewski was a White House correspondent during the Clinton and Bush administrations, covering President Clinton's transition from Little Rock, his many trips abroad including Moscow and the Middle East and his reelection. He was also an NBC floor reporter at the Democratic and Republican conventions in 1996 and 2000.

In the Bush White House, Miklaszewski reported on the Gulf War with Iraq, summits with Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin and the Bush reelection campaign in 1992.

Miklaszewski has logged considerable foreign experience with battlefront coverage of wars in Lebanon, El Salvador and the Falkland Islands. He also covered the United States air raid on Libya, and the "tanker wars" in the Persian Gulf.

Courtney Kube

Courtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.