Alina Chourasia shares her experience of returning to work with her baby after the paid parental leave she was entitled to finished.

While new mums can look forward to another two weeks of paid maternity leave from this week, one Taupo mum is taking her baby back to work in a move that's getting her boss praise from both sides of the political divide.

Like many new mums, when Alina Chourasia's 16 weeks of paid maternity leave was up she wasn't ready to leave her child to return to work.

Taking extended maternity leave was out of the question as her Taupo employer, Beds4U, had only employed someone to cover the minimum period.

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Despite not wanting to let them down, the thought of sending her child Elicia to daycare and missing seeing her grow was out of the question.

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LUKE KIRKEBY/ FAIRFAX NZ Alina Chourasia is grateful her employer has allowed her to return to work with her baby Elicia.

So she phoned her boss with two options - either she'd have to reluctantly quit or return to work with her baby.

To her amazement her employer was all for the latter.

"My employer said I have always been in the store like it was my own so they were sure if I took my baby in I would make it work," she said.

So Chourasia, who only started working at the bed retailer during her pregnancy, returned when her baby was around three months old.

Working four full days a week from 10.30am until 5.30pm and two half days has mostly gone smoothly.

"I won't lie, the first month was hard because you have to get used to it all and they have to slowly adjust as well. It's tough but it's doable," she said.

"I had a couple of situations where she was grizzly but people actually understood and said 'that's okay we will just have a look while you settle her for five minutes'. I have never had anyone that didn't understand," she said.

She'd set up an area for baby Elicia to sleep and play on a mat, as well as a swing by her desk.

"I think it's really good for babies because they learn respect from an early age and get used to different people and faces," she said.

She hoped other employers will consider doing the same for new mums.

"Give mums a chance, it's not as bad as you probably think," she said.

Beds4U manager Vinny Chaudhary encouraged other businesses to give it a try.

"Everything has been going well and she is a real asset to the company. Definitely give it a go because it can be very hard for parents, especially mothers, to get work out there," he said.

Enterprise Recruitment director Warwick Neutze said many of the businesses his company dealt with throughout the country wouldn't be opposed to catering for similar scenarios if a potential employee offered what they were looking for.

"Most of the clients we deal with would be happy to as long as they feel [new mums] can get to work, that they are capable, and that there are acceptable support networks from friends and family in place for the likes of when a child gets sick and needs to be picked up," he said.

He said flexibility was the key to successful employment and mothers could make exceptional staff members.

"[Traditionally] mothers have been overlooked in the workforce but they can often bring amazing skills and motivation to a job and we always encourage businesses to look at that," he said.

Labour MP Sue Moroney, who has lobbied for further extensions to paid maternity leave, commended the Taupo company for allowing a mother a "choice".

"New Zealand is the only country in the OECD where employers don't have to pay anything towards maternity leave so this is one way of them doing their bit," she said.

From April 1 paid parental leave increased to 18 weeks but Moroney believed that was still not enough.

Since 2012 she has being attempting to get a bill passed that will see it increased to six months.

"Research shows the first six months are the most important in terms of bonding attachment [the nonverbal emotional communication between child and parent which impacts the future mental, physical, social, and emotional health of children] so that is why I have gone for this amount of paid parental leave," Moroney said.

Minister for Women, Taupo MP Louise Upston, said businesses should do all they could to support new mothers in returning to the work force and she applauded Beds4U.

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