Once again, science has gone through an awful lot of trouble to prove something totally obvious that we already knew. New moms on maternity leave feel totally inadequate about returning to work. If we're at home, we go for days without talking to another adult. When we return to work, we have less confidence. I mean, the whole study just paints the saddest, most demoralizing portrait of working motherhood you could ever ask for. Gee, thanks!

Okay, so we really didn't need these researchers to tell us it's insanely difficult to get our career mojo going again after we have a baby. Here's what we DO need: Some fresh ideas for HOW to get our career mojo going again.

Someone just turned 20 today. Guess who???? It's the Family and Medical Leave Act, signed into law 20 years ago. This law protects workers who want to take a parent leave after the birth or arrival of a new child, and it protects workers who need to go on medical leave either for themselves or for a family member. Before that, a business could fire or replace you if it wanted to if you went on leave for either of those reasons.

The FMLA only protects full-time employees at companies with over 50 employees. So not everyone benefits from the law. But for those of us who have benefited from the law, it's been a huge relief. I can't imagine how different my life as a mom would be without it.

Don't think new motherhood is tough enough? Get ready. A group of uber-moms (or uber-idiots ... you decide) has thrown another log on the fire. They're taking what they call a "power maternity leave."

So how does that differ from the regular old weeks of trying to bond with this little person who is constantly crying or pooping or sleeping? Well, honey, these ladies don't just use that time off from work to do a silly little thing like learning to be a mom. They learn a new language! They start a new business! They do something, anything, that will boost them up the corporate ladder.

The most powerful new mom in the U.S. showed up in my mailbox yesterday -- the morning after she gave birth to her first child. So I couldn't help but do a double-take when I saw Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer on the cover of Fortune for its annual '50 Most Powerful Women' issue. Mayer looked gorgeous and fit -- and yes, powerful -- in a slim black dress and belt. What she did NOT look was 39 weeks pregnant.

Given how the issue date (October 6) coincided with Mayer’s due date (October 7), you have to wonder what happened here. Fortune clearly used an old photo of Mayer, who was named the 14th most powerful woman, for their cover. Did Mayer refuse to have a photo of herself pregnant appear on the cover? 

Four pregnant women sit next to each other at a busy airport. Cara, is from Canada, Mary is from Mexico, Anne is from the U.S., and Irene is from Italy. Like most women that have just met, they are able to form an instant bond about their pregnancies. They shared how much weight they have gained, stories about morning sickness, and more. For the most part, their stories are typical. It’s not until the conversation turns to the topic of maternity leave do their stories start to differ.  

Procreating in the United States is a right, but paid maternity leave is not. That is, if you want a baby, by golly, you can have a baby. You don’t have to pass any tests, you don’t have to be married, heck, you don’t even have to get pregnant thanks to surrogates or good old-fashioned adoption. Want to be a parent? Awesome. Go do that.

But it’s not your right to ask other people to support you while you fulfill your baby dreams.

There. Now that we have the tough love portion out of the way, let’s talk about why a federal law requiring paid maternity or paternity leave is a bad idea for the United States: Because we’re different.

The number of families opting for dad to stay home with the kids while mom brings home the bacon has more than doubled in the last decade. In 2001, dads made up a scant 1.6% of the at-home parent crowd, but by 2011, they made up 3.4% of the demographic. Still a small portion, but it’s a significant increase within the time frame.

It might be tempting to blame the recent recession for the uptick in stay at home dads, but researchers postulate that shifting gender roles and widespread acceptance of women in the workplace as the more likely culprits for this trend. Most couples that live this lifestyle do so by choice, citing economic or pragmatic reasons.