Maternity Rights; Home Psychology; and One Born

Wednesday 3rd of April 2013 | Category: Pregnancy News | Written by: Leoarna Mathias

Recent media coverage of the plight of women who have lost their jobs while on maternity leave makes for depressing reading. Earlier this year, One Poll questioned over a thousand women about their experiences. A startling one in seven reported losing their jobs while on leave, and 40% stated that their jobs had been changed by the time they returned, with many finding they had been either demoted or had their hours cut. Depressing statistic after depressing statistic emanates from this research. No doubt our current economic climate is making it harder for small and medium sized businesses to honour the legislation designed to protect female employees. For a movement that spanned most of the twentieth century, there is yet a lot more work to do to ensure that maternity rights are not ridden roughshod over.

Feeling the Strain?

20% of the women polled felt that no one understood what it was like to juggle work and new motherhood, and nearly one in ten reported feeling the strain in their relationships. We already know that one of the most ‘fragile’ times in any long term relationship is the first year of the first child’s life, so it is doubly depressing to feel that workplace and economic demands are exacerbating this situation. And while the government is trying to assist hard-working families in their attempt to keep up with their outgoings, the changes to the tax and benefits system currently so hotly debated in the political media are not set to kick in for some time yet.

Here on Pregnancy.co.uk we have taken a look at your maternity rights for both employees and the self-employed; have a read, and let us know what your experiences have been in the comments section below.

mother and father

Psychology in the Home

Last week, Dr Angharad Rudkin, a psychologist who works with families, summarised the most common complaints that families make to her via the lens of hindsight. The list included ‘sweating the small stuff’ and ‘feeling guilty’. Put another way, nagging our children about things that we may eventually decide didn’t really matter, and feeling guilty about how we do or don’t handle situations with our children, are sizeable preoccupations for many. Since the advent of popular psychology and the availability of a million books on what constitutes healthy psychological development in children, modern parents have been worried that they are doing harm where they should be doing good. The media never misses an opportunity to make us feel worried about something new, and we now even have government guidelines on the identification of conduct disorder in our children. Some quarters would argue that we are invading the private sphere of family life at our (eventual) peril; others would say that the benefit of sharing research with British families outweighs the anxiety it might cause. What do you think?

A Solemn One Born

Here at Mum Network we have been known to tweet in excited anticipation of the latest edition of Channel 4’s popular show, One Born Every Minute. Yet it was clear from the tone of hash-tagged comments, that last week’s episode would be a bit different. Hayley Jackson and her partner Peter Heseltine demonstrated incredible bravery as they allowed the story of their son Kaiden’s short life to be broadcast on the programme. Kaiden was suffering from a Diaphragmatic Hernia, a congenital condition that leaves babies with such underdeveloped lungs that their survival rate is no more than 50%. The condition is very rare, but for the families whose lives are touched by it, it is devastating. Our collective hat is off to Hayley and Peter for talking so honestly about the experience of carrying Kaiden to term and seeing him come into this world; they have touched the lives of many, no doubt. And you may want to add your name to the e-petition for further research into the condition.