Letter: Mothers are forced back to work by social pressures

I AM SO relieved that the cat is out of the bag at last ('The growing pains of separation', 23 August). Beverley D'Silva's article supports recent research findings that two-thirds of mothers who work only do it for economic reasons (Gallup, July 1992). A report published earlier this year concluded that children raised at home had more balanced personalities and performed better at school than children who had been in daycare for long hours from an early age (The Hidden Costs of Childcare by Dr Patricia Morgan).

All this leads to the obvious conclusion: babies need their mothers and mothers need their babies.

A generation of feminists has claimed the 'right to choose' in just about every sphere of life, yet this movement has done nothing to defend a woman's most fundamental right: the right to nurture her own children.

As a result today's young mothers find that a mixture of economic and social pressures, relentless browbeating by the media, and a fiscal system heavily biased against the one-earner family conspire to drive them back into the workforce long before their task at home has been accomplished.

Anna Lines

Full Time Mothers

London SW3