Recent census statistics show that the number of children being cared for by stay-at-home moms has increased nearly 13% in less than a decade; at the same time, the percentage of new mothers who went back to work has dropped from 59% in 1998 to 55% in 2000.

Among them is Allison O'Kelly, CEO of Mom Corps, based in Atlanta. The company sprung from O'Kelly's own experiences in trying to find the right work-life balance.

"I'm a CPA, and when my first child was born, I was trying to find work where I wouldn't have to be in the office every day," she recalls. "I started doing contract work for small clients, and soon I had more work than I could handle. I got some friends involved,and quickly found that there were so many other people needing the same opportunities I did."

Hence, in July 2005, O'Kelly branded Mom Corps to serve as a matchmaking service between employers looking to recruit top talent and former full-time professionals turned stay-at-home mothers. Resumes for highly qualified and educated women - CPAs, attorneys, IT specialists among them - are maintained in Mom Corps' database of 1,500 applicants.

"Employers mostly call us for small, short-term project work, but also for longer-term stints, filling in for someone on leave," O'Kelly explains. "We also do a lot of permanent part-time placement. We make sure employers are getting exactly what they need, and we've received positive feedback about every singe person we've placed."

Placements meet moms' needs as well. "For women with younger kids, we find work they can do from home; women with older kids can't do full-time work during the summer," she says.

Although Mom Corps has been active for just over a year, "word is spreading very quickly," according to O'Kelly, and she believes the company is "opening employers' eyes" about flexible work arrangements.

Profiting while parenting

Stacey Smith, president of Moms-for-Profit, also opted out of the workforce after her first child was born, but she wanted to maintain ties to the working world she'd left behind. Like Mom Corps, Moms-for-Profit matches stay-at-home mothers with corporate assignments.

"We wanted to help companies and help moms," she says. "We know that we're offering something that's wanted and needed, because even with work-life benefits, a lot of employers still expect that 9-5, which isn't always practical for moms."

Moms-for-Profit has more than 100 stay-at-home moms on its rolls, but Smith admits, "It's been difficult [marketing to employers]. It's been slow, but it is happening. We tell them, This is meeting your business needs, and it's great for your [image] to publicly support moms.'"

The company received a boost from Liz Lange, whose maternity-wear line can be found nationwide at Target stores. "She's our first true corporate sponsor," Smith says. "She's so down to earth; she's just a mother who wanted to help other mothers get out there."

Stopping the mom drain

There's a reason many women nervously tiptoe into their supervisors' offices when they announce they are pregnant. Aside from fear of the unwritten "mommy track," written benefit procedures largely are not on working mothers' sides, either.

According to the Society for Human Resource Management, less than one-third of employers (32%) offer paid family leave and even fewer (26%) allow employees to telecommute part-time. Only 22% let parents bring their child to work in an emergency, and just 5% have company-supported child care.

However, statistics from the Children's Defense Fund show that annual child care costs range from $4,000 to $10,000, the majority of women with children aged 0-13 work fulltime and an estimated 12 million children under age 6 spend some or all of their day in nonparental care - evidence that working families need employers to help provide meaningful work-family balance solutions.

"Employers are getting active in [other areas], but when it comes to maternity, there is very little dialogue about how they can accommodate the condition," asserts Aaron Crecy, CEO of MaternityCare Direct, based in San Diego. "There's this historically unspoken stigma that keeps employers from talking about it."

Crecy and MaternityCare Direct co-founder Kevin Darr support Smith and O'Kelly's efforts, but they are taking a different tack - working with employers to retain working mothers to prevent them from opting out.

"We were appalled at how little data there is on pregnancy-related costs for employers," Crecy says. A few companies, notably Ernst & Young and KPMG, admit to spending millions annually due to maternity-related turnover. As a rule, however, Crecy maintains, "the right questions just aren't being asked."

Darr comments: "We spoke with enough health plans to determine that they are primarily focused on reducing their own care costs, [which] means that they actively market their prenatal education programs to employees with high-risk characteristics. Well, that model excludes more than 90% of pregnant women in the corporate environment."

Affirms Crecy: "Obviously, it's good business to support pregnant employees and help facilitate their return to work. So we thought, Why not create a retention and loyalty program?'"

In January 2005, Crecy and Darr did just that, founding MaternityCare Direct. "Our goal was to foray into the disease management space, aligning ourselves with employers' existing prenatal programs," Crecy says.

The firm promotes early intervention, supporting employees and dependents from confirmation of pregnancy through return-to-work, through online, phone and direct mail initiatives. The program includes the educational materials and access to a nurse line common to prenatal programs.

However, it also features return-to-work incentives like a subscription to Working Mother magazine, a Medela breast pump, car seats, strollers and other mommy swag. Employer contributions can include cord-banking subsidies and an employer-sponsored college savings plan with annual contributions on the child's birthday.

"It's not so much that a breast pump is going to make or break a woman's decision to return to work, but it's a sign of a larger cultural emphasis at a company," Crecy says. "It helps say to women, We're here to support you through your pregnancy, and we care if you return to work.' It's so simple, but it's amazing how big the need is."

MaternityCare Direct is priced at around $1,000 per enrollee. "We're not really after the early adopters, but the risk takers," Crecy says.

O'Kelly says that's all that's really needed - for employers to take a chance - for such mom-focused efforts to make a difference.

"So many stay-at-home moms stay home because they don't see alternatives that will allow them to work and be with their children," she says. Emerging companies targeting the mom market, she affirms, "will help stay-at-home moms stay in the game, and employers that are working with us will help working moms see that more companies are open to flexible work." - K.M.B.