Kids of working mums not worse off for care than stay-at-home counterparts

Melbourne, June 30 (ANI): Guilt-ridden working mothers can chill - a new study claims, while breastfed babies are held more and read to more, they sleep 40 minutes a day less and cry five minutes a day more than bottle-fed babies.

The Australian Institute of Family Studies research revealed that full-time working mums spend on average 83 minutes less per day with their baby than stay-at-home mums, but the baby's father and grandparents make up for the lost mother time, reports The Daily Telegraph.

The study used the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children which asked parents of 3000 babies aged 3-14 months. The volunteers were asked to keep diaries on how their babies time was spent.

"While babies spent less time with their mother if she was in paid work, this time appeared to be made up by fathers and with other relatives such as grandparents," institute research fellow Dr Jennifer Baxter said.

Dr Baxter said her study showed babies of working mums received the same amount of attention measured in cuddles, reading and conversation as babies of stay-at-home mums. (ANI)