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Having come from an organisation where Occupational Maternity Pay (OMP) ceased after six weeks, Dstl's maternity package is very generous. Dstl gives you six months' OMP (full salary) before Statutory Maternity Pay kicks-in for a further three months. This meant that I could stay at home with my daughter for the first nine months of her life - ensuring I missed out on none of those exciting 'firsts'!

Returning to work was exciting, partly because I love my job but also because I had stayed in touch with my colleagues while on maternity leave and so it didn't feel like I was starting at Dstl all over again.

I went for my career level review while on maternity leave and was successful. I had the full support of my line manager but, even still, I know this is fairly unusual. I had to put in a lot of work to bring myself up to speed with the business prior to my interview, so I can't say going for your level review while on maternity leave is an easy thing - it's not, but I’m glad I did it.

I receive childcare vouchers from Dstl and they are a huge benefit as childcare is very expensive, so the vouchers do take away some of the 'ouch' factor.

Rather than working five days a week in the office, I now work from home on Fridays, with my Mum looking after my daughter while I take advantage of the peace and quiet to catch up on my emails and to-do list. I still have to come in some Fridays for meetings, but on the whole it was relatively easy to arrange and the set-up seems to work well.