Giving birth and child's health are women's greatest fears before starting a family While career concerns were marginally higher for some groups - for example, among 16-24-year-olds (four per cent), women in London (three per cent) and women from a higher socio-economic bracket (two per cent) - the results still indicate that health is by far the new mother's highest priority today. And concerns over health do not diminish with a second or third child: fears over giving birth increased to 41 per cent among women with more than one child. Women over the age of 35 were more likely to worry about the health of their child, with this concern rising to the top of the list for 40 per cent of older women, while financial concerns fell among this group to just 16 per cent. Are women really putting motherhood ahead of their personal professional goals? Or is the apparent lack of worry over the impact of family on a woman's career a sign that British employers are finally getting it right? "Most people will choose a healthy child over their career," said Jo Swinson, the Deputy Equalities Minister. But there's an element of optimism in these results, too. The public sector has traditionally been better at offering good maternity leave, but the private sector is improving. Large companies are prioritising better maternity leave packages, so they can retain good female staff members, said Ms Swinson. Asda, for example, is offering peer-to-peer mentoring for mums-to-be while they are off, when they are thinking of returning to work, and when they're back, she said. An increasing number of employers recognise that getting maternity policy right is good for them - it means that they retain good staff and avoid paying recruitment fees for new staff. According to the latest figures, three-quarters of mothers return to work within a year of their child's birth, and 84 per cent of those mothers return to the same company they worked for before they gave birth. The poll's results are not an indication that British companies are getting maternity leave right, however, and these figures suggest a smoother transition than many women experience. "Maternity discrimination, sadly, does still go on," she said. However, under the Coalition's plans for flexible parental leave, which are due to start in 2015, Ms Swinson said that companies would gradually get used to men taking time off from work. When you don't have a guarantee that it will be mum taking time off with a new baby, it strikes a blow against that attitude. The poll, conducted by Bounty in conjunction with Ipsos/MORI, surveyed nearly 900 new mothers across the UK.