Return to work strategies and wellbeing among Finnish women after a family leave

Objective: Finnish women have a 10 month maternity/parental leave with an option to continue as long as the child is 3 years. In spite of women''''s relatively high labour force participation rates among Finnish women, there is much need to evaluate their return to work patterns.   Aim of the study is to disentangle the roles of individual factors (lifestyle, workability, quality of life, and depression), employment patterns and organizational factors (worksite family friendliness, psychosocial characteristics at work, quality of work) to return to work.  

Design and setting: Cross-sectional postal questionnaire in South-western Finland area. Participants: Women with at least one risk factor for gestational diabetes, who participated to the gestational diabetes prevention trial baseline screening. Response rate was 54 % (410/852).  Main outcome measures: Individual factors: age, parity, lifestyle, workability, quality of life; Employment characteristics: full-time vs. part-time, permanent vs. fixt-term contract; Perceptions concerning work tasks: quality of work; development opportunities at work; Organizational factors: worksite friendliness, daily flexibility, other policies related to return to work.

Results: Employment status before pregnancy is more important than age, parity or education. Workability among women who have not returned to work was significantly lower (8.4 vs. 8.7). Women who had not returned to work reported their work as physically stressful and they had more bodily pains than women who had returned to work. Women who had returned to work reported their possibilities for development at work as better than women who had not returned to work. There were similar differences in worksite friendliness arrangements by return to work.  

Conclusions: Organisational, work-related and individual factors play a role in return to work among Finnish women. More active worksite family friendliness policies should be applied in order to attract women to return back to work.