A young father with his daughter, here in 2002, during the institution of paternity leave.

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DIDIER PALLAGES / AFP

Make support for young children and their parents a "priority of public action": this is what is advocated in a report submitted to the government on Tuesday, a commission of experts, chaired by child psychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik.

The key idea of ​​this work is that children, and therefore the adults they will become, are "shaped by the environment in which they grow up", but that "we can act" on this environment and thus "help them to develop as best as possible, ”explained Boris Cyrulnik.

"Building a harmonious relationship" with your baby

The proposals resulting from this report on the “first 1,000 days of the child” - from the fourth month of pregnancy to the second birthday - will be “appraised” by the government, and will give rise to “announcements by the end of the month. “, Said the Secretary of State for Children and Families, Adrien Taquet.

Measures could be included in the 2021 Social Security financing bill (PLFSS), he added.

“Certain elements recommended have already caught our attention,” said the Secretary of State, citing in particular the need to better communicate public health messages to parents, to strengthen support for families for better “ detect weaknesses ”, or even extend paternity leave.

This point is one of the recommendations likely to be the most commented on in the Cyrulnik report: convinced that "it takes time, availability and physical and emotional closeness on the part of parents for them to build with their baby a harmonious relationship ”, the authors recommend increasing the paternity leave to nine weeks, instead of 11 days currently.

"A part could be taken after the birth and the other part at the end of maternal leave".

Seven out of ten fathers take this optional leave

In June, Marlène Schiappa, then Secretary of State responsible for gender equality, affirmed the government's intention to extend paternity leave, but without specifying the duration.

Currently, seven out of ten fathers take this optional leave, compensated by health insurance and created in 2002, which supplements the compulsory three-day birth leave, payable by the employer.

Adrien Taquet also stressed the need to "break the taboo" of postpartum depression, which would strike 10 to 15% of mothers.

It constitutes the "main complication of pregnancy, with consequences which can be severe (...) for the development of the relationship with the baby", write in their report the doctors, psychologists, midwives and other specialists in early childhood.

For the authors, we must offer personalized support to parents, who "sometimes find themselves alone and lost in the midst of their many interlocutors".

"Regular public information campaigns" should also emphasize the importance of this period, according to the authors.

The report further recommends improving parental leave compensation, increasing it from just under 400 euros per month to at least 75% of income.

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