Maternity leave. I would like to understand other perspectives a little better.

I'm pregnant with my second. I called Paid Leave Oregon and they transferred me to a claims specialist. I was looking for answers as to what's the maximum period of time my job was protected even if that meant a pay cut on my salary or no pay during that time. She said "we can only make qualifying employers protect your job for X amount of time because what was happening is that people were taking upto 9 months on leave". I responded that doesn't seem exorbitant given the needs of babies in their first year, the needs of moms after giving birth and considering that you aren't paid 100%. She said "What!? 9 months! Ahh sure!". It seemed like I just said the craziest thing in the world. I told her I had had my first child one year before they started PLO and not only was I not paid but my employer let me go when I wanted to go back to work three weeks after delivery. Her answer was "Women have been having babies long before you were even born without this resource". I'm very grateful that this time I have some sort of protection and support in such a vulnerable time. My family lives very far, we have no one. PLO is going to significantly help us this time around. That being said, is it that hard to understand that a family with a newborn may need more than 3 months of protection? That when they are having that baby they are choosing between taking care of their baby or getting their full salary or even renouncing to see a $ during that time? Her lack of empathy brought me to tears. I wanted to understand people with similar mindset a little better.