So what did we find? We spoke to 6 former ministers/MPs (and worked with one, Chloe Smith), to find out about their experience of maternity leave and how they think it can be improved. First point - things have got a lot better over time! Baroness Hayman was an MP in the 70s and...

...got a huge amount of unpleasant media coverage when she had a baby. And parliament was not supportive: "the only discussion the staff had was agreeing how much force the doorkeepers of the Commons chamber could use to stop her bringing her baby in"! (she wasn't planning to do this anyway...)