CUMBRIAN-BORN TV presenter Helen Skelton will make her ITV debut with a documentary she hopes will get people talking.

The ITV Tonight programme Can Women Have it All?, which hits our screens this evening t hurs at 7pm, is based on recent Government figures which found eight out of 10 women are discriminated against in the workplace when they announce their pregnancy or go back to work after having a baby.

Mum-of-one Helen was shocked by the statistics. She said: “It’s sad really because I feel like there’s never been a better time to be a woman. There’s so many strong role models and it’s such a hot topic that we’re always going on about.

“You want to think that in this day and age you can have it all but I suppose the reality and the practicalities of having a baby are tricky.”

The programme also explores how women cope with work and family life.

It features a stay-at-home dad and women trying to juggle and career and family life along with a fertility expert, who said women should start trying to conceive in their mid-twenties.

It’s a dilemma 32-year-old Helen has been faced with herself. She was back at work just two weeks after giving birth to her son Ernie in June last year.

The family moved to the south-east coast of France at the end of last year when her rugby player husband, Richie Myler, left Warrington Wolves and signed for Catalan Dragons.

Helen loves living in France but said life can be manic as she has no help out there. When she’s working she and Ernie fly over to the UK and her friends and family look after him. She has come to realise you can have a career and a family but you can’t have it all.

“I don’t think you can have everything but I think you can have a lot,” she said. “I think the more you want to have the more you need a strong family and a big support base. Unfortunately, living in France we don’t have that.

“It is tricky and it is hard but I love my job so I’m trying to keep my hand in.

“There’s a lot of things I can’t do any more and a lot of things I’ve had to say no to, which is hard for the old version of myself.

“But at the same time I’m blessed to have him and he’s only going to be this small for five minutes. I didn’t have him for someone else to bring him up.”

Helen is back on BBC’s Countryfile in March and has a gardening series in the pipeline. She is also set to cover swimming and diving at the European Aquatics Championships in May and the Olympics in August for BBC Sport.