"very short": dude this is four and a half months of parental leave. not short at all. some women in offices work right up to their eight month of pregnancy. plus this parental leave is paid.

"putting some outside work plans on hold" : the woman in question has not finished the courses to be licensed in this field of work or registered for the exam and this is when she was not pregnant. do you think that she will finish her licencing exam after she's had the baby? it's pretty obvious that she won't finish it even then cause babies take up a lot of time and effort and who wants to study for an exam on top of taking care of the baby?

sounds like she saw this job had good parental benefits and wanted to have the job and benefits from it without providing any benefits for the company itself