New parents in the Army can take advantage of a revamped parental leave policy that went into effect in a Jan. 22 memo.

Getting the Army in line with the rest of the services, the directive's language no longer automatically assumes that postpartum mothers are primary caregivers, while more than doubling the amount of time off previously allowed for new fathers.

The new policy is retroactive to Dec. 23, 2016, according to the memo, so new parents who are still within eligibility windows could be entitled to more leave.

The most significant change separates what has traditionally been known as "maternity leave," which increased to 12 weeks immediately after birth in 2016, into two categories: "maternity convalescent leave" and "primary caregiver leave.

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Arin Lassiter practices changing a diaper on a premature baby while in an incubator during a Womack Army Medical Center Maternity Fair November 3.

Now, the Army allows six weeks immediately after delivery for a woman to recover physically, then another six weeks she can take at any time within that first year. At the time same, the child's secondary caregiver can take three weeks of leave at any time during that first year as well. The previous policy allowed 10 days, and fathers, for example, had to take the leave within 45 days.

Those limits are extended if a soldier becomes a parent while deployed, and the clock begins when they return.

The reason convalescent and primary caregiver leave are separate, according to the policy, is that there are now allowances for unusual circumstances where a child's birth mother is not its primary caregiver. That could include death or illness of the birth mother, or another situation where she is not present for the child.

In that case, a soldier may file a request to become the child's primary caregiver and be eligible for up to six weeks of leave.

In the case of a legal adoption, soldiers will have to be designated a primary or secondary caregiver, and then request six or three weeks of leave accordingly.