A new report on mothers returning to work after having a baby has revealed that grandparents are heavily relied upon when it comes to childminding.

The report is based on the ongoing study, Growing Up in Ireland, and focuses on the choices made in relation to childcare when a mother returns to work following maternity leave. These findings are based on interviews that were carried out on the parents of over 11,000 nine-month-olds.

Currently, employed women in Ireland are entitled to 26 weeks' paid maternity leave and up to 16 weeks of additional unpaid maternity leave.

The report shows that while few mothers return to work before their child is six months old, many return when the child is six or seven months old. This suggests that the duration of paid maternity leave has a key role to play in the employment choices of women after having a baby.

This finding is similar to other countries with paid maternity leave.

While the majority of women who work before childbirth take paid maternity leave, just a small proportion also take unpaid leave. These tend to have higher levels of education and income.

Overall, mothers who have high levels of education are more likely to return to work compared to mothers with low levels of education.

Meanwhile, those who return to work before their child is six months old are more likely to be young mothers or self-employed.

By the time a baby reaches the age of nine months in Ireland, almost 40% are in regular childcare that does not involve a parent.

Among these, the most common type of childminder is a relative, most often a grandparent. In fact, 42% of nine-month-olds in non-parental childcare are looked after by relatives.

This is followed by non-relatives (31%), usually childminders, and centre-based care (27%), i.e. crèches.

Low-income families and younger mothers tend to use relatives more often than others. This suggests that income has a big role to play in childcare choices, particularly when it comes to the cost of crèches.

The report noted that children in crèches tend to have less one-to-one interactions, although there are more children's books available to them compared to home-based childcare settings.

Meanwhile, the report also noted that many people caring for babies who are nine months old do not have relevant qualifications. Furthermore, while qualifications are higher among crèche staff, even there, they are relatively low.

When it came to the health of children, at the age of nine months, those in crèches have a higher risk of catching an infection than those being minded by their parents. For example, they are 2.5 times more likely to have suffered a chest infection.

Speaking at the launch of the study, the Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald, said that the findings ‘provide a valuable backdrop to ongoing policy discussions relating to early childhood services and matters of cost, choice and quality of childcare, including in the context of the ongoing work on Ireland's first-ever Early Years Strategy'.