scratchingthesky - I know 1 captain and 4 co-pilots within my large company who have had kids and have returned to flying straight after their maternity leave. I think that they're all part-time and I'm fairly sure that they all intend to fly for approx 40 years in all as they are all career minded. Most share the child-care with their partner, some also have parents nearby who help out. They're all currently on short-haul routes so can get home more frequently than our long-haul colleagues.
Paid child-care tends to be focused on 9-5 jobs and is therefore more expensive and harder to get hold of.
The BA pilot who you're referring to had a good legal case because BA kept changing their reason as to why she wasn't allowed part-time work. Initially they said that they were simply too short of First Officers on her fleet. No mention of safety issues at all. They only decided to introduce a minimum 2000 hour rule many months AFTER her pregnancy and part-time application. They changed the rules not her. If that had been a rule before hand she would have planned accordingly.
Fly_Gurl - As with you I'm both career and family minded. At no point during my application, training or 9 years so far with my company has anyone indicated I would have to give up my flying permanently in order to bring up my children. In fact, when I went for my initial medical back in '95 they were at pains to stress they had a creche available at one airport. My husband and I know it's going to be tough but I would hate to have to give up my career when we have children. I have always relied on the fact that part-time work is available and that our combined salaries would help with child-care costs.
Milt - As red snail says, with adjustable rudder pedals and seating there's a reasonable range of builds that can fit behind a control column. As long as you can get full rudder in - for the engine failure case - you're fine and that's something that can be checked on a simulator before starting a conversion course. You should see some of the beer bellies that manage to fit!
I think that our company has a 5'1" cut-off.