Children of working mothers are three times more likely to be ill, found out in a study. The research of the health of 90,000 schoolchildren found that those whose mothers worked were more likely to have spent time in hospital, to have been diagnosed with asthma and to have suffered bone breaks and poisonings.
Lack of supervision is thought to be one of the reasons, reports the Daily Mail.
The U.S. researchers said that while having a working mother may benefit children in other ways, more needed to be done to help modern women juggle the demands of home and office.
Melinda Sandler Morrill, of North Carolina State University, analyzed 20 years of surveys in which parents were asked about their circumstances and their children's health.
This revealed children of working mothers to be at three times the average risk of having at least one overnight hospital stay, the Journal of Health Economics reports.
Morrill, said it was possible working mothers felt guilty at leaving their children during the day and were more likely to seek medical help for relatively trivial problems.
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