MORE than a quarter of mothers returning to full-time work soon after having a baby experience marital breakdown, according to a study carried out by a Swindon-based research council.
The Economic and Social Research Council funded researchers from Oxford Brookes University to look at what happened to women who returned to work full-time within 12 months of the birth of their first child and stayed in full-time jobs thereafter.
They found that only 73 per cent of those with partners at the time of the birth remained with the same man.
By contrast, 92 per cent of those returning to work part-time before the child's first birthday stayed living with the father of the child.
The report shows that fewer mums stay in full-time employment after the birth of their first baby than was suggested by previous research. Only 10 per cent of first-time mothers maintain continuous full-time employment during the 11 years following the birth of their baby.
Professor Susan McRae, author of the report, said mothers fall into four main categories: those who worked continuously full-time; continuously part-time; mixed full- and part-time work; and women who had not been employed since the birth of their first child.
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