Another great change for many women is the difference between working and staying at home, even if you are on maternity leave and plan to return to work eventually.

When you are in full time work you spend very little time in your own home and therefore may not know many people in the area. Unless it is an area you have grown up in. Work also provides a structure and a framework not only to each individual day, but to the weeks to the months and to the years.

When you are home with your baby every day of the week there is no structure and virtually no framework except the one you try to impose upon it. Suddenly the times that your partner leaves for work and comes back to the house is the only thing putting some kind of framework around an otherwise formless day.

These comings and goings become landmarks which highlight weekdays from weekends and separate day from evening.