to have taken 3 maternity leaves?

[Kathyis12feethighandbites]

This thread is making me very uncomfortable.
I am wondering if I am one of these women who is seen as taking the piss, abusing our generous employment rights etc.
I know that is how my head of department sees it.

I've had 3 children in 5 years, taken an average of 3 months off in each pg due to hyperemesis. This time I was sick right the way through so was not working at 100% capacity the rest of the time though I did my very best.
I took 6 months mat leave the first time, a year the second and will take 9 months this time. I have never taken my full holiday entitlement because I feel too bad about it.

Should I have not had the third child, especially given that I knew I was likely to get hyperemesis again?

My employer is a big one (a university) so should be able to absorb the cost, BUT as there is a policy of not always giving the dept any money for cover (even when they are saving money on salary ) the strain did fall on colleagues/the departmental budget.

(was stating my age here to show that I still have a few years left to work, both part and full time - not boasting about how long/short in the tooth I am!)

Eyeballs, good luck with the down-to-the-last-second planning.

Pavlov - I like your argument, I hadn't thought of it that way. If I gave up work I wouldn't be claiming benefits (unless something happened to dh) but I wouldn't be paying tax either and I expect to pay quite a lot over the course of my career.

Inveteratenamechanger - they sometimes get money to cover leave - they did for my first, which enabled them to extend the contract of a research assistant until money could be found to make her job permanent. So the dept did actually benefit from my first leave, just not the last two.

I'm in discussions about returning to work from maternity leave and my request for PT time work has been rejected for the 2nd time

Contrary to popular (tabloid) belief it is very easy for an employer to come up with a business case if they want to. I work for an international organisation with 1000s of employees so they could definitely do it if they want to, but they don't

I think we will now try for a second DC earlier than planned, not sure if that is terribly unreasonable but they are being so inflexible with me I dont feel any great need to be "kind" to them at the moment