I lost my job as a result of Fennel's situation - more childless people around willing to invest more time than I could possibly offer. I firmly believe that men need to have equal child-rearing rights as women and that these days more men would take advantage of it, so that it would be less of a women's issue and more of a parenting issue.

I have just been demoted by my employer whilst on maternity leave with my second child. I had previously negotiated part-time work on the same level as I was on full-time (a senior manager). Now there has been a change at the top and the new boss doesn't believe in part-time managers. Full stop. No attempt to try it or offer job share or anything. If I want to stay part-time when I go back (and I do) I have to lose all management responsibilities.
Oh, and he's also issued a moratorium on all new applications for people to go part-time as he thinks there are too many part-timers already. And this was mailed out to everyone on maternity leave. Nice.

is it because of maternity leave or the fact that some people want to choose to have a home life?? we all work to earn money and that money is to provide for ourselves and our families. what is the point if we don't see our families?
wanting to work flexi hours, part-time/jobshare is all hard to get and detrimental to careers. but work should be assessed hour by hour not by how many days in a week. I'm only part-time but i know i don't waste time chatting or larking around or sneaking off for fags but go in and get the job done. my colleagues do those things and are also unreliable and sickly. i am punctual, efficient and rarely off sick. now i have 2 children and i have to have some childcare for them then it is likely that at some point i will need to have some time off if they are ill but why does that make me less dedicated to my job than someone who gets drunk and doesn't show up or doesn't get on with the job or is just plain less efficient than me?
I was told about a career opportnity when iwas 1st pregnant in a ou'd be perfect but heres a ot of stayin aay which won't suit you now. yes they were right but that just proves the point. it does efect our careers but then as some others have said its also (up to a point) a choice that we make and i wouldn't want to spend less time with my kids.

I suppose it's not so much taking maternity leave as actually having children full stop.
Where I am it is virtually guaranteed to be the end of your career!

I work for a very large organisation in a skilled profession.

Taking mat leave is not usually a problem and a year isn't worse than 6 months really for your career.

What is a problem is if you want to work part time and/or fixed hours..if you need to leave the office at 5.30pm each day your career will suffer. You need to be at the beck and call of the organisation on a moment's notice. If you have a live in nanny this is the best choice for your career due to good flexibility - but this is not affordable for most as an option. Nursery is not too bad but once your kids go to school life becomes 10 times harder to coordinate!

And if you want to change employer and find a job with part time hours you will struggle to find one at all, and when you do you will crucify your hourly rate by at least 30%.

Exactly, Athene. It's just assumed everyone who works can afford to stay home. Not always true.

I was lucky in that my maternity leave was full whack for 16 weeks, and I was able to tack on a couple of weeks of holiday.

But then it was reduced and we just could NOT afford any reduction in pay at the time.

And not-so-low wage earners in todays market I think.

I had to chuck it in, too, Athene, because we really needed my income to pay the rent.

It's just a fact of life for many lower-wage earners.

Intersting point that breast feeding policy is in conflict with efforts to reduce descrimination in the work place.

I personally chucked in breastfeeding at 4 months after going to a meeting with leaky tits. Thank God we ewre in a training room and there was a computer screen in front of me.

Certainly there did come a point where breast feeding is not more important than my ability to feed the rest of the family.

you can predicr fairly close where it (pat leave) will be in most cases; you have to apply by week 25 iirc, giving details of when you plan to take it- unless a baby is born unusually early thats not a huge window; indeed dh gives far less notice for his annual leave