Parenting is hard enough, but it appears many mums are making it even harder on themselves – by succumbing to ‘work guilt’.

While new figures show 64 per cent of mums are now in employment, research suggests more than three-quarters (80 per cent) of these feel guilty about going back to work after having a baby, worrying about leaving their child in the care of others.

But, as Mandy Garner, editor of working mums.co.uk, rightly argues: “Guilt is a bit of a useless emotion if you can’t do anything to change things.

“Finding the right childcare to fit around your work patterns, negotiating flexible working or finding a new flexible job, and planning ahead for emergencies, like who takes time off when a child’s sick – these are all things you can do to help reduce the guilt.”

She says: “It’s very hard to go from an extended period of doing something entirely different from your day job to returning to work.

“Many women find their confidence is affected, but once they’re back at work, they usually pick up the reins pretty quickly. After all, it’s often something they’ve done for many years.

“What is new is coping with the dual role of working and being a parent. Guilt gets a lot of press and it’s definitely an emotionally turbulent time.”

She says many women rethink their values and priorities after having a baby, and find it hard to move from being at home with the baby for months and then leaving them for up to ten hours a day.

“For many women though, there’s no choice,” Mandy points out.

Indeed, the 2013 annual survey of working mums by workingmums.co.uk found the main reason for mums returning to work after having children is money (94 per cent) – although 75 per cent want to work to boost their self-esteem, and 75 per cent enjoy their job.

So if you can’t avoid the need to return to work, the only answer is to try and reduce the stresses that go with it – Mandy stresses that being happy about childcare, making sure it’s right for you as well as your child, is crucial in this.

“Anything that can reduce your stress levels helps make the return easier and more sustainable in the long-term,” she says.

Tweaking things a little at work if necessary, such as reducing working hours, or cutting commuting by requesting a couple of days working from home, are also steps which can be of huge benefit.

From the employment perspective, part of the problem with returning to work after having children can be the length of time a woman has been off. The workingmums.co.uk survey found 32 per cent of mums took between one and six months off, 30 per cent took seven to 12 months, and 23 per cent had more than two years away from work.