CPS data for 1979 to 1988 are used to examine the determinants of employment, actual work, and maternity leave for women in the year following childbirth. Women with better market skills (higher expected wages, older, more education) are more likely than other new mothers to have a job and to...

This paper examines a woman's decisions about when to return to market work in the two years following childbirth and the type of child care she chooses. Own wages relate positively to an early return to work, while higher family income delays return to work. Wages and income did not...