A Navy dad was able to get 12 weeks of paternity leave through a new policy. It showed him just how much work goes into childcare, and meant his wife felt supported 'mentally and physically.'

• Jordan Heathcoat, a US Navy father, said paternity leave has given him a whole new perspective.
• In January, the US Navy increased parental leave for "secondary caregivers" from three to 12 weeks.

Jordan Heathcoat is getting to spend more time with his newborn daughter than he previously expected.

The Chesapeake, Virginia-based 23-year-old serves as an electrician's mate third class petty officer in the US Navy, based out of the Norfolk, Virginia, naval base. His wife, Kaitlyn DeOliveira, cares for their daughter full-time while working from home as a social media influencer. She also used to serve in the US Navy, as an aviation ordinancemen.

Last October, when the couple gave birth to their first child Rosenella, Heathcoat expected to have access to three weeks of paternity leave. In February of 2022, the Navy and the Marine Corps increased the amount of parental leave for "secondary caregivers" from two to three weeks.

But in December, the couple learned that the US military was updating its parental leave policy — and that Heathcoat would have access to 12 weeks of leave. He took his first month in February — when his daughter was four months old — and is currently in the midst of his second month. He plans to take his final weeks in July, the couple told Insider, so they can spend time looking for a new home.

DeOliveira said she struggled with postpartum depression. Having her husband's help at home allowed her to focus on her mental health and take time for herself, she said. "When he was working, I felt that I never had that."

For Heathcoat, paternity leave has given him an extra level of appreciation for his wife's child care efforts, he said, particularly during the roughly one day per week when he works a 24 hour shift.

"Paternity leave has given me a different perspective," Heathcoat said, "because I didn't see the day-to-day operation from morning to evening. I now see the whole 24-hour operation, not just afternoon to night time. It allows me to understand just what my wife went through for four months while I was working."

The couple is the rising number of US parents taking paternity leave. As of February, an average of 406,000 workers took paid or unpaid parental leave over the prior year, the Wall Street Journal reported using Labor Department data — a 13.5% increase from 2021. In January, 478,000 working parents were on leave, the highest number on record dating back to 1994.

Dads are becoming a bigger share of that group. Over the six months preceding February, an average of 76,500 men were on leave, roughly three-times the number who did so in 2018, according to census data.

In part, experts have attributed the spike to an uptick in births over the past two years, but the main driver is likely the growing number of workers with access to parental leave. While the US is the only industrialized country that doesn't guarantee paid parental leave, 25% of workers had access to it in March, according to the Labor Department, an increase from 19% in 2019. Roughly 90% of the workforce has access to unpaid family leave.

In 2020, the US government increased parental leave for federal workers to 12 weeks — consistent with the military's updated policy.

These changes are 'monumental' for US service members

The military's policy changes had been in the works for over a year.

In December of 2021, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022, which required all branches of the armed services to provide parental leave for both military mothers and fathers by the end of 2022. Roughly 37 percent of individuals in the US armed forces have children, per the Department of Defense.

Initial details began trickling out last December, but the Pentagon officially announced the changes in January. Under the prior policy, birth mothers received six weeks of convalescent leave to recuperate, and an additional six weeks of parental leave if they were the family's "primary caregiver." The updated policy gives mothers 12 weeks of parental leave after the convalescence period and also 12 weeks of leave for parents who did not give birth.

Pennsylvania Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, an Air Force veteran, said these changes would be "monumental" for service members and their families

"I had my first child serving active duty in the Air Force, and the wait for child care on base was monthslong," she told The New York Times in January. "This new policy ensures that families won't have to choose between a paycheck and taking care of their newborn child."

The leave must be taken in the first year after the child was born and was applied retroactively to any service member who had a child adopted, or became a long-term foster care parent as of December 27th of last year — foster parents were not eligible under the prior policy.

Generally, deployed service members are required to wait to take their parental leave, but they are allowed to receive an extension so they can take it later.

The policy's rollout wasn't without its hiccups. Each branch was supposed to release their own parental leave policies by January 1st, 2023, but it took the Navy, Army, and Marines several more weeks before their policies were officially released, which brought about stress for some families.

But for DeOliveira, the opportunity to have her husband around more often made the wait well worth it.

"He really pushes me to make sure I take care of myself mentally and physically," she said, "and I couldn't be more grateful for that. He is truly wonderful and I love him so much for pushing me and being so supportive and being my rock."