Recession's Latest Victim: Maternity Leave

Struggling moms abandon plans for months, years off work with children
By Jess Kilby,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 11, 2009 9:11 AM CDT
Recession's Latest Victim: Maternity Leave
Samantha Spragg drops off her daughter Reef Hall, then 16-months-old, at the McBurney YMCA drop-in day care center in New York. More mothers are returning to work to support their families.   (AP Photo/Diane Bondareff, file)

Stay-at-home moms are becoming the next casualty of the recession, the Wall Street Journal reports. Women who hoped to take several months or even years of maternity leave are now scrambling to find work or increase their hours as the family finances crumble. One mom-centric staffing agency has seen a 79% uptick in web traffic this year, with many clients now asking for full-time hours.

"At the end of the day the kids have less time with us," says one new mother, who now puts in between 50 and 70 hours a week. "It just isn't what we planned."
(More maternity leave stories.)

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