I've seen one for studying salad leaves.. I'm sure its interesting to some.. and very important but i do think spending 3 years studying salad leaves would be very odd!!

Good luck with your trying!

Thank you for the advice, I am worried about the affects of chemicals in the lab, and this has been playing on my mind alot. Originally we were thinking of having children once i had finished my PhD, but if we choose to have them sooner, we would get maternity pay which we wouldnt otherwise. I'm not keen to continue on and do a post doc after this, as i'm finding a Phd hard enough!

My husband is 3 years older than me, and is in a very stable job with a good income that can lucky support us both. he was in the army before i met him, and so i think he is ready to setlle down after doing lots of travelling!

we are in a very lucky position and own a 2 bedroom ground floor flat, that is quite large and has a large garden, and we are hoping to stay there for the next 5 or so years.

Its great to get some advice, as i've been unsure whether this is a good thing to do or not. I really want to finish my PhD, and dont want to decide to have a child and never return. My other worry is childcare as you mentioned, there is a campus nursery etc.

hey,

I'm new to this forum and have been reading the topics for awhile, and finally decided to post! I've just started my PhD (well in Jan) straight after completing my undergraduate. So far I've been finding it pretty hard going, I got married last august (at 21), now my husband and me have started thinking about when to start a family. I am funded, and have looked at the contract and i would get maternity pay and my PhD funded/extended by the amount of time i choose to take off.

I was wondering if anyone had been in a similar position and how easy they found it to get back into their PhD? we're not thinking of trying till half way through my 2nd year. I am in science/lab based PhD so i'm a bit worried about lab work etc suffering.

Hopefully you guys have some experience of this,

Thank you xx