Studies on maternal employment during early childhood from the United States cannot be assumed to generalise to other countries: The United States is unique in the lack of guaranteed maternity leave, contributing to an earlier return of new mothers to the labour force. Studies from multiple countries that capitalise on policy variations and reforms related to maternity leave generally suggest little impact on child outcomes based on the length of leave mothers can access (Baker and Milligan, 2011 [i63i, Dustmann and Schonberg, 2012[i64j, Liu and Skans, 2010[i65i, Washbrook etal., However, mothers’ return to work within six months of children’s birth may be negatively associated with children’s cognitive outcomes, especially if mothers work full-time.