The first few months after both my kids were born were a blur.

I remember one night I was changing my son’s diaper at about 3 a.m. I had my glasses on and only left a small night-light on. I was going through the mommy motions like a zombie — take off diaper, take out wet wipie, find the butt cream…

Suddenly I couldn’t see anything. My vision became blurry and for a moment I thought, “oh my God, I am so tired from weeks of no sleep and trying to juggle work that I’m actually going blind!”

It turned out, my son Cheiron had actually urinated up onto my glasses. Since the urine was warm I didn’t realize it right away.

I’m telling you this story because it’s a great example of how out of it women can be in those first few months after the baby comes. But somehow most of us go back to work in only a few weeks because we have to.

So, what if women could get four and a half months of mandatory paid maternity leave? And I’m talking not only for women who work for a company but self-employed women as well.

No, I’m not writing a I’m-never-going-to-get-this wish list to Santa. This is seriously what the European Union is considering right now.

This from the International Herald Tribune today:

Working women should be able to take at least 18 weeks of maternity leave, including those who are self-employed, the European Commission said Friday.

The EU executive has proposed that countries in the European Union pass legislation establishing an 18-week minimum leave, as well as 100 percent pay or the equivalent of sick pay.

Currently, maternity leaves vary across the EU from 15 weeks in Belgium to 18 months in Sweden. A dozen nations offer leaves shorter than 18 weeks.

Pay levels and conditions during leave also differ greatly across the 27-nation bloc.

Chances are the U.S. has the worst maternity leave policy than most of those nations.

Turns out our great nation is one of only five countries that does not require paid maternity leave for working women. The others that share in this pathetic distinction: Lesotho, Liberia, Swaziland, and Papua New Guinea.

Under the Family and Medical Leave Act, workers can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave if they are ill or have to care for a family member. But folk, most of the people I talk to and get emails from can not afford to take a week off with pay, let alone 12 weeks.

There is legislation out there right now proposing paid parental leave for federal workers and for employees in the private sector. Here are some links to those. Federal employee bill. Private sector bill. And here’s a story I wrote on paid family leave for MSNBC.com.

If this is something that matters to you I say you start calling your members of Congress and also take a look at where both presidential candidates stand on the issue.