Can the Safety Net Support Families Through Childbirth?

Author(s)/Creator(s)

• Hyojeong Kim, Seoul National UniversityFollow
• Colleen Heflin, Syracuse UniversityFollow
• Taryn Morrissey, American UniversityFollow

Description/Abstract

Childbirth is a life event that often disrupts maternal employment and household earnings just as family expenses increase. In the United States, families do not have access to a national paid parental leave program and must rely on a patchwork of safety net programs that were not designed specifically to support households during pregnancy and the immediate postpartum period. This brief uses linked administrative data from the Virginia Longitudinal Data System (2016–2021) to describe changes in household earnings and social welfare benefits before and after childbirth among low-income mothers receiving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program at some point in the year after childbirth. The authors find that household earnings fall about 13% in the year following childbirth, and that combined benefits from major safety net programs can offset those losses under full program take-up. However, support is sparse during pregnancy and the quarter of birth itself, and most assistance is delivered through food programs that cannot cover non-food expenses like health care, housing, and childcare.

Document Type

Policy Brief

Date

8-19-2026

Keywords

Childbirth, safety net programs, SNAP, TANF, WIC

Language

English

Funder(s)

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Series

Policy Briefs Series

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The authors thank Alyssa Kirk and Shannon Monnat for editorial assistance.

Disciplines

Economic Policy | Economics | Maternal and Child Health | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Public Policy | Social Welfare

Recommended Citation

Kim, Hyojeong, Heflin, Colleen M., and Morrissey, Taryn. (2026). Can the Safety Net Support Families Through Childbirth? Center for Policy Research. Policy Brief #27. Accessed at:. https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/534/.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.