Pregnant women ‘should keep in contact with HR’

Female workers on maternity leave have been advised to keep in regular contact with their employers and the HR department at their place of work in order to ease their eventual return to the office.

While becoming a new mother can have its benefits, parenting expert Catherine Hanly said it is also an emotional time which can be made unnecessarily difficult by employers not supporting them once they return to the workplace.

She added that discrimination may still exist against new mothers and women on maternity leave.

“Anecdotally, I’m sure most people know someone who returned to work after maternity leave and found that their position had changed or that they were edged out of the decision making process,” Ms Hanly stated.

Get our essential weekday HR news and updates. Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Work Email Keep up with the latest in HR... This field is hidden when viewing the form Optin_form This field is hidden when viewing the form Optin_date Year Month Day This field is hidden when viewing the form Batch_Newsletter

However, the expert added that it is also difficult for some employers to offer the support needed due to recent extra legislation, meaning that balance was needed.

She advised women on maternity leave to stay regularly in touch with the office in order to ensure their manager remembers that they are due to come back.

Her comments come as research by the National Childbirth Trust revealed that 31 per cent of women said their relationship with their boss had deteriorated since they had become pregnant.