>>Right. Here, especially if you work for the government, I believe it is up to five years maternity leave may be taken without pay (for men or women)
>
>In the bad old days of cruel socialism, there was one full year of maternity leave for the first two kids, and two years for the third (but none for the fourth, because it was Albanians' policy of ten kids per family to change the demographics on Kosovo and Metohija, while the numbers of all others were declining). And daycare was actually quite cheap - there'd be a kindergarten within a mile, wherever you are in the city - and it was completely free for the third kid. Also, there was some money per kid that you'd receive - maybe just a few percent of a regular salary, because these were the last to be updated after any inflation, but still it was something. And a patronage nurse would visit a few times to teach the young parents a few basic things about how to take care of the baby. All covered by the state health protection system (that's what it was called, "health protection").
>
>Luckily, it's all in the past now, well, most of it.

Eh... I beg to differ. Most of what you describe here still is there in the Netherlands, though in less quantity. We don't get a year off, but arround 16 weeks arround the birth of a child. Daycare is partly funded by the government and affordable for most up here. We have something called kinderbijslag, which is a fund from which you receive some money every month to grow up your kids. It is not much, but just enough to make a difference to the poor. We also have the 'patronage nurse' over here, that would visit the new member of the family once or twice. And then we visit her regulary at her place to check out whether the child is developping normally until the age of 4 (i think).