I was made redundant while in the early stages of pregnancy and was unable to find a new role before the baby arrived. Because of this I took Maternity Allowance/Share Parental Leave and allowed myself nine months leave before looking for work again. Since starting to look, I have interviewed for two roles that I know I could do brilliantly, only to be turned down on both occasions because they wanted ‘someone who can hit the ground running’. Translation: someone who hasn’t been out of work for nine months due to maternity leave. I now have a family to support and need to return to work, so what am I supposed to do?