Hey Laura,
As a mother I agree with on your first request, when you are talking about the extension of maternity leave for mothers from twelve weeks to sixteen weeks. I have heard of mothers that struggle on making the decision to use some of that time before the birth or just wait until the last minute after they have their baby. In the first place if all of this maternity privilege is about the mother and the baby, the mother the last month of the pregnancy is feeling miserable. She should not have to decide to just wait until the baby arrives to gets some rest. I strongly think that at least the last two weeks if possible the mother to be should be resting and getting ready for labor.
I'm not to sure about your second request. As much as I would love to get paid for that time, I think that would be something a little harder to get. I do agree with your point especially with single mothers or families with low income that for starters that is why low income families begin with the pregnancy because of not so cheap anticonceptives. I would love to see a change about this. Life is already too hard sometimes and there is only so much we can do to help others.
On your third request I also agree with you, but honestly this is not about the government, it is mostly about the cheap companies that want to cover that for their employees. My husband works for AT&T as a Prompt Tech and when I gave birth to my last baby on July 28, 2018, my husband was allowed to stay home with us with paid parental leave for a whole month. So, I think The FMLA totally approves it but the stingy companies are the ones not wanting to pay for that.
