CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --
Air Force officials announced policy changes regarding fitness exemptions and deployment dwell times for new mothers July 15.
The deployment deferment policy, an Air Force 2015 Diversity and Inclusion initiative which was released in March, increases the deferment from deployment, short tour or dependent- restricted assignment and temporary duty to one year, unless the service member opts to forego that option.
As a result, the fitness assessment exemption for women immediately following childbirth was doubled to 12 months in order to align with the recent changes to deployment dwell times.
“The goal is to alleviate the strain on some of our talented Airmen who choose to leave the Air Force as they struggle to balance deployments and family issues, and this is especially true soon after childbirth," said Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James.
These new policies apply to female Airmen who gave birth on or after March 6, 2015 and following pregnancies that lasted at least 20 weeks, whether they resulted in delivery or miscarriage.
Research and development of new policies such as these is based upon the recognition that providing female Airmen options to serve while supporting a family can prove to be more beneficial than forcing a choice of one over the other, James said.
“I think it’s about time,” said Staff Sgt. Loni Fields, 27th Special Operations Comptroller Squadron deputy disbursing officer, who gave birth to a daughter in June. “It takes 10 months to make a baby and after you have the baby, you really only have 4.5 months to get back in shape, making that Physical Training test the scariest. Under the new deferment timeline I can ease back into shape without injuring myself.”
“As for TDY assignments and deployments, six months was just not long enough, so a full year makes much more sense,” Fields continued.
Air Force Guidance Memorandums are expected to be available in the upcoming weeks.
Opportunities to extend maternity and convalescent leave periods are currently being researched by the Air Force, in conjunction with the Department of Defense. The current DoD policy authorizes six weeks, or 42 days, of maternity leave.
“We want to make sure we develop an equitable policy that supports all of our Airmen and also maintains the ability to execute our mission,” James said.