After recently visiting my local hospital's neonatal unit and becoming an Aunty to twins born at 33 weeks It made me think about families and how they manage work and family life with babies born prematurely. It is such a difficult time for parents and although we have been extremely lucky with healthy babies some families have a much harder time. Babies can spend the first months of their lives in incubators hooked up to machines with wires and tubes, this is heart breaking enough for their parents but they also have to deal with making the difficult decision (particularly fathers) about when to take their paternity leave. They are faced with the decision to either spend precious time with their poorly newborns and supporting their partners or returning to work so they can have that time as a family when their babies finally come home. Some mothers may have spent months with their babies in a neonatal unit and had their time at home with the babies cut short. Surely all parents have an equal right to the same length of time at home as a family with their newborns. Dad's should be given at least 2 weeks after birth and another 2 weeks once babies are home paid leave. Mum's should be given their usual maternity leave with the additional amount of weeks spent caring for their babies still in hospital. This petition applies to all parents of premature babies whether it be same sex couples or babies carried by a surrogate. I use the term 'mom' & 'Dad' from personal experience but this applies to all new parents.