And inadequate child care intensifies other stressors affecting health as well. The cost of child care in this country is already astronomical. The task of finding care can also increase parents’ mental labor load, which can erode psychological health, particularly for mothers. And when one child care center closes or one babysitter cancels, the burden of finding an alternative falls to the parents. Child care precarity — a state of insecure and unreliable child care — has been linked to negative mental health outcomes for mothers for at least six years afterward.

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Persons: —, precarity