[The expectations of a woman's return to work after childbirth]

The objective of this study is to assess the relationship between the decision to return to work during the first year after delivery and socio-demographic and professional factors, as well as the reasons why the decision is made. Data collection was carried out by a personal interview in the hospital, two days after childbirth. 597 primiparous or secundiparous women who had developed a professional activity during pregnancy were interviewed. Uni and multivariate statistical analysis techniques were used. Blue collar workers (ORadjusted = 0.13), administrative staff (ORadjusted = 0.16), women who give up work more than a month before the birth (ORadjusted = 0.33 and 0.28), women without a contract (ORadjusted = 0.19) and temporary workers (ORadjusted = 0.30) were less likely to make the decision of returning to work. According to these results, the continuity of the women in the labour market after maternity is determined to a great extent by the social and employment context where she works; a fact which must be taken into account when putting into practice maternal and child health promotion programmes.