Childcare campaign: Childbirth guru adds her backing

Childbirth guru Sheila Kitzinger has joined our campaign to give working mothers tax allowances for childcare. "I am happy to support The Independent's campaign for tax relief for working mothers," she says. "This is a really important issue, and one that the Government cannot afford to ignore."

The e-mails, faxes and letters continue to flood in as readers express their views on The Independent's campaign.

In Saturday's paper we compared the UK's situation with other countries. A reader from Winchester, Marie-Christine Murphy-Bouthor (a French citizen working in this country) tells us: "I am horrified with the cost of good quality childcare in the UK. When I tell my relatives in France they still find it difficult to believe me; surely England could not be still in the Dark Ages. I am 38 weeks pregnant. I have booked a creche for my future baby: this will cost me pounds 460 a month ... In France the same quality of childcare would cost me between pounds 100 and pounds 200. And this amount would also be deductible from my taxable income! And I would have pounds 90 a month in terms of child benefit (twice the amount given in this country). My husband and myself are currently looking for a position in France or Belgium. In those countries we will certainly not be penalised for having a family."

Mandy Price, who works part-time and studies part-time, says care for her two children leaves her not much better off than if she was on income support: "If this Government does not make genuine policies to provide adequate and affordable childcare ... the reality will surely be that many children are going to be cared for in an informal manner by friends, family, neighbours and, for the older generation, a return to the latchkey kids of the past."

Anne O'Connor, of London, calls for tax breaks not just for working mothers but those who work in the home, to be given recognition for the job of mothering: "What mothers need is a proper family allowance which would give them the choice of whether to work mainly in or outside the home."