Mothers Twice as Likely as Fathers to Face Burnout

A large-scale Belgian study has found that mothers are more than twice as likely as fathers to become incapacitated for work due to mental health problems such as burnout or depression, with the risk gap widening significantly as the number of young children in the household increases. The findings, published on June 4 by the Independent Health Insurance Funds (Onafhankelijke Ziekenfondsen, known as Helan in Flanders), are based on data from 313,088 members tracked between 2017 and 2025.

The Scope of the Disparity

According to VRT NWS, mothers living with a partner face a 2.27 times higher risk of mental health-related work incapacity compared to fathers living with a partner. For single mothers, the disparity is even starker: they face 2.67 times the risk of single fathers.

The study’s full findings, available through the MLOZ study page, reveal that the presence of young children is a critical factor. The risk for mothers increases incrementally with each child under the age of seven:

• No young children: 2.21 times the risk of fathers
• One young child: 2.37 times the risk
• Two young children: 2.47 times the risk
• Three or more young children: 2.99 times the risk — nearly three times higher

Remarkably, the study found that neither the number of children, a new birth, nor the time elapsed since birth has any measurable impact on fathers’ risk of mental health-related work incapacity.

Why Mothers Bear the Greater Burden

Katrien De Reu, a physician-researcher at the Onafhankelijke Ziekenfondsen who contributed to the study, explained that the findings point to deeply entrenched structural factors rather than biological differences.

“Mothers more often than fathers interrupt or adjust their careers,” De Reu told VRT NWS. She highlighted the “child penalty” — the well-documented phenomenon in which mothers face disproportionate career and income disadvantages after having children.

De Reu also pointed to persistent gender norms. “Men more easily outsource care and more quickly choose to keep working, because they see themselves as breadwinners,” she said. Meanwhile, a stigma around paternity leave persists: “Fathers should be able to take parental leave without being seen as less motivated.”

Time-use research cited in the study shows that women spend an average of 15 hours more per week on care and household tasks than men. Four out of five part-time workers in Belgium are women, and women interrupt their careers more often for family reasons.

Policy Implications: The ‘Familiekrediet’ Opportunity

The study arrives at a critical juncture in Belgian policymaking. The federal government’s coalition agreement (Regering-De Wever) includes a proposal for a “familiekrediet” (family credit) — a reform that would simplify and consolidate various parental leave schemes. Under the proposed system, leave rights would be attached to the child rather than the parent, allowing families to decide how to distribute leave between parents, with grandparents also eligible to take part.

As newsmonkey reported, an extra week of birth leave was planned for 2026 as part of the first phase of this reform.

The Onafhankelijke Ziekenfondsen have formulated five key recommendations based on their findings, urging policymakers to use the familiekrediet as a lever for gender equality, with special attention to single parents. They also call for normalizing and stimulating parental leave uptake by fathers, simplifying leave schemes across professional statuses, providing more flexibility for part-time workers, and investing in affordable, high-quality childcare.

“Without structural interventions, the combination of work and family threatens to become unsustainable for many mothers,” De Reu warned. “A balanced distribution of care tasks is crucial — not only for gender equality, but for the mental health of working parents.”

Broader Context

This study adds to a growing body of evidence on the mental health toll of motherhood. A 2025 EU survey by Make Mothers Matter found that Belgian mothers report the highest rates of burnout and perinatal depression among surveyed European countries. Separately, research by Fontenay and Tojerow (2025) calculated that Belgian mothers face up to 40% higher risk of work incapacity than fathers up to eight years after the birth of their first child — a risk that is equal for men and women before childbirth.

Burnout and depression are already the leading causes of long-term work incapacity in Belgium, with the number of long-term sick due to these conditions rising 43% between 2019 and 2024.

What to Watch For

As the Belgian government moves forward with the familiekrediet reform, key questions remain: Will the system effectively address the gender gap in care responsibilities, or will cultural norms limit its impact? What specific interventions could help single mothers, who face the highest relative risk? The study’s findings make clear that without deliberate structural change, the mental health burden on mothers will continue to grow.