When Peter Rohne and his wife Eden were expecting their second child last year, whether he would take parental leave was never up for debate.

"It was actually a condition of our having another child," jokes Rohne. "We had an active three-year old and my wife wanted me home to help out."

The Winnipeg software developer, who took two months off after the birth of their son Jack, is one of a growing number of dads taking advantage of Canada's parental-leave entitlement.

"I was the Starbucks daddy with the double stroller for a couple months," Rohne says. "It really made a huge difference for me to be home because we didn't have to hire someone to come in - although I have to admit, it was all kind of a blur."

There has been a 400-per-cent increase in dads taking parental leave.

In the last decade, there has been a 400-per-cent increase in the number of dads taking parental leave, according to Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC) - thanks in large part to the extension of benefits.

"Since the enhancements were made in 2001, it has been tremendous growth in men taking parental benefits," says Dan Charrette, director of program assessment for employment insurance policy at HRSDC. "An explicit objective of these increased benefits was to encourage more dads to take leave, so certainly from that point of view it has been a success."

The enhancements increased parental leave from 10 weeks to 35 weeks, in addition to 15 weeks of maternity leave for birth mothers. The parental leave can either be taken by one parent or shared - and it seems more and more parents are opting to share time home with baby.

"I'm definitely seeing a lot more fathers splitting the one-year leave with their spouse," says Winnipeg human-resources expert Barbara Bowes, president and CEO of Bowes HR. "Most men are taking the second half of the leave, but I'm also seeing fathers take vacation or personal leave to stay home for a few weeks when the baby is first born."

The data on parental leave alone shows that more than 34,000 dads took a break from work in the last fiscal year, accounting for 15.5 per cent of claims. Of the couples splitting the leave, men took an average of 10 weeks with women taking 23 weeks.

It was a different scenario for Roger Morcilla, who took the bulk of the parental leave when his second daughter was born in 2003.

"My wife had to go back to work," Morcilla says. "As a pediatric urologist, her profession really demanded that she go back to work, so we agreed that I would take the leave and be the one to look after the kids."

A supervisor with bus manufacturer Motor Coach Industries in Winnipeg, Morcilla says his co-workers were shocked at his decision to stay home.

"They were very surprised that I was doing it and they kind of tried to discourage me from doing it, but ways are changing and my employer was very, very supportive."

Other workers haven't been so lucky - encountering the pitfalls parental leave can have on climbing the corporate ladder.

"It can certainly have an impact on your career," says Bowes. "I'm still hearing from traditional organizations that there's a concern and I think there's an insidious, behind-the-scenes reluctance to accept this for men and women - but especially for men."

When officer Tim Diack went on parental leave from the Winnipeg Police Service seven years ago, he claims his employer tried to prevent him from taking the three months of leave to which he was entitled.

"I had a rough ride and I was really disappointed with the response that I got from some people," Diack says. "When something is the law, you shouldn't have to negotiate through the union to get what you're entitled to."

A 20-year veteran of the force, Diack put his kids before his career and took parental leave again in 2003. After seven months off the beat, he returned to work to find himself at a desk job.

"I was summarily transferred from the patrol division I was in to a job that was just processing prisoners," Diack claims. "It was a job for people on their way out and I was stuck with people who didn't want to be there, with no motivation, in the basement of the (police) building ... Essentially, they were trying to punish me for taking that direction and taking leave."

Diack fought the transfer and is now back on patrol. But experts say it's not uncommon for men to experience trouble returning to work - especially after a longer leave.

"I would say three months would be a good average to not impact your career," Bowes says. "If you want to take longer, then you really have to make an effort to stay in touch with your business and the issues in your business and the people in your business or you'll be forgotten."

Staying connected - either by phone or by e-mail - at least once a month will also help you hit the ground running when it comes time to return to work. While it may be tempting to promise to do work from home, Bowes says that often backfires.

"Don't promise to work - it's just too hard and then it becomes a guilt trip for you trying to do the work you promised to do, especially if you're being paid for it, and then you're not giving the baby the attention you want to and that's the whole purpose of the leave."

For Peter Rohne, taking time off had no impact on his career. In addition to taking a shorter leave, he also had the full support of his boss and co-workers at IBM.

"They all thought it was great," Rohne says. "I had been preparing for it all year, ever since my wife was pregnant, so we were able to plan for it on the project I was working on and it really wasn't a problem."

(Tess van Straaten can be reached at tess@businessedge.ca)