On the train this morning

I settled down with my usual assortment of reading materials -Times, FT and...Stylist, which had an interesting article about 'power maternity leave' - read it here: http://www.stylist.co.uk/stylist-network/power-maternity-leave

It made me think about my own mat leave and how fortunate we are relative to our friends in the US who aren't blessed with the entitlements we have. Working in the City, though, means that taking the full year available isn't always an easy option. If you do a job that's not easily covered by a temp - I work in a very niche area so this was certainly the case for me - it was more a question of taking the shortest time off possible. For me, that was four months of leave, followed by another period of working full time but being based at home, with in-home childcare, as - in spite of ages spent persuading R to take milk from a bottle - I wasn't able to wean R off breastfeeding in time. It wasn't easy, but it was doable with a first baby. If you can take longer then fantastic - look into 'keeping in touch' days as a way to maintain regular contact with work. But if you can't, and are keen to get back to your desk, short leaves are certainly manageable.