Khajeh Zahra, Nakhaee Nouzar
Health Services Management Research Centre, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
Int J Prev Med. 2024 Dec 28;15:76. doi: 10.4103/ijpvm.ijpvm_261_23. eCollection 2024.
Work-family balance has emerged as one of the influencing factors for the physical and mental health of working mothers and their children.
The present study aimed to understand the experiences and perspectives of working mothers on maternity leave and return to work after childbirth. This cross-sectional survey was conducted in three major cities in southeastern Iran.
Working mothers who had at least one live birth during the 3 years prior to the survey, aged between 18 and 49 years, and living with their husbands were enrolled using a consecutive sampling method. The sampling framework consisted of all government workplaces that had at least 30 female employees. Using a validated anonymous questionnaire consisting of demographic and attitude variables, we assessed the working mothers' experiences and perspectives regarding the quantity and nature of the last maternity leave and how supportive their workplace was. Descriptive statistics with frequencies and percentages were used. To compare categorical variables between groups, the Chi-square test was used. A value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 22.
A total of 900 female employees were invited to participate in the study, and finally, 741 valid questionnaires were analyzed. More than 21% of them reported that the office had changed their position or type of work after returning to work. Women with higher position jobs reported a higher husband's support for baby care ( = 0.03). Almost 51% of mothers agreed their workplace allowed them to use breastfeeding breaks, which was less evident in nurses ( = 0.001). Nearly 86% of them stated that mothering duties are much more important than job-related responsibilities.
Our study identified areas of consideration for investing in family-friendly workplace policies in Iran.
工作与家庭的平衡已成为影响职业母亲及其子女身心健康的因素之一。
本研究旨在了解职业母亲在产假及产后重返工作岗位方面的经历和观点。这项横断面调查在伊朗东南部的三个主要城市进行。
采用连续抽样法，纳入在调查前3年内至少生育过一个存活婴儿、年龄在18至49岁之间且与丈夫同住的职业母亲。抽样框架包括所有至少有30名女性员工的政府工作场所。我们使用一份经过验证的包含人口统计学和态度变量的匿名问卷，评估职业母亲对上次产假的时长和性质以及工作场所支持程度的经历和观点。使用频率和百分比进行描述性统计。为比较组间分类变量，采用卡方检验。P值小于0.05被认为具有统计学意义。使用SPSS 22版进行统计分析。
共邀请900名女性员工参与研究，最终分析了741份有效问卷。超过21%的受访者表示，重返工作岗位后办公室改变了她们的职位或工作类型。职位较高的女性报告称丈夫在照顾孩子方面给予的支持更高（P = 0.03）。近51%的母亲表示工作场所允许她们休哺乳假，护士群体中这一比例明显较低（P = 0.001）。近86%的受访者表示育儿职责比工作职责重要得多。
我们的研究确定了伊朗在制定家庭友好型工作场所政策时需要考虑的领域。
