Australia's most family-friendly workplaces

Brooke Wells Who are the country's top family friendly employers, and what benefits do they offer to their workers? Essential Baby investigates.

Downside seen in parental leave

Adele Horin Women workers are likely to suffer discrimination as a result of new workplace rights that enable them to take two years of unpaid parental leave instead of 12 months, according to a prominent feminist academic.

Do you really need to work?

Gill South Every day mothers are making important decisions about whether or not to return to paid work. For many, working outside the home - either part time or full time - is a financial necessity. For others, their work is part of their identity and their self-worth.

Leave for new dads a step still too far

Katharine Murphy The Productivity Commission wanted to give fathers two weeks' paid leave with their new babies - but that idea is on the backburner as the Government looks to contain the cost of its 2009-10 budget spending.

Rudd Government delays paid parental scheme to 2011

Melina Cruickshank The Federal government has delayed their 2007 election promise of a paid parental leave scheme for another 18 months, and restricted it to primary carers earning less that $150,000. On Essential Baby, working mothers are questioning the delay as well as the means testing.

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Slipping into a life more comfortable

Model turned fashion designer Michelle Walsh discovered she was pregnant with her first child while working on the television series Escape With ET.

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Study shows benefits of early maternity leave

Bridie Smith Women who start maternity leave at least a month before their baby is born are less likely to have a caesarean delivery according to US researchers, who also found mothers who delay their return to work breastfeed for longer.