As a contrast, in Canada maternity/parental leave is baked in to every job. See http://www.esdc.gc.ca/en/reports/ei/maternity_parental.page#... It's not perfect (there's a cap on how much money it will pay), but it's universal. There's 35 weeks, and it can be divided between mother and father however the family sees fit.
I am shocked that there isn't a nationwide policy for this in the US :-(
Generally here the mother gets 18 weeks, the father 5 and there's a further 32 weeks to share between the two as the parents see fit. There's similar benefits for adoption and I don't remember the rules for LGBT couples but there are some.
There's also an alternate schedule that trades less weeks for a larger fraction of the pre-leave salary.