You might suffer.

Most people would like to get ahead in their career, get paid well and have great benefits. More and more, people tell me they'd like to take time off--six months a year--while still getting ahead in their career, getting paid well and keeping their benefits. So how do you walk away from your work and come back to it with nothing changed? You don't. Something is going to give. Your career will probably suffer a bit. Just as Elizabeth Vargas said her career did when she stepped down as co-anchor of ABC World News Tonight when she was pregnant.

Here's more on how she--and you--can take a break comfortably, and more easily pick up where you left off--knowing that there's a price to pay.