I talked to women who decided not to separate career and motherhood. Owners of their own business, a PR woman, an artist and an astrophysicist spoke about the consequences of such a decision and how to maintain work, income and sanity after childbirth.

mother of twins

I am a mother of twins. It took me a long time to become a mother, and along the way I managed to create a blog with my friends about supporting women with reproductive difficulties and open my own travel agency.

I returned to work six hours after giving birth.

When your business has just launched and not all processes have been streamlined, there is a lot of work. My birth was premature, although this is considered normal for multiple pregnancies, so when I woke up from anesthesia after a caesarean section, I picked up my laptop and continued doing what I had left off the day before. Nobody canceled the deadlines.

The children and I spent the first month in the hospital: they “ripened”, slept a lot, and I sat next to them, pumped every three hours and worked. She continued to work at home while the children slept or walked on the balcony.

I remember this feeling: it’s late at night, the whole house is asleep, and I’m typing a concept to the sound of a breast pump.
But I was motivated by new projects, goals, money, and the taste of victory. It was a career takeoff, it was difficult, but I enjoyed what I was doing. My mother and my aunt helped me with the children, and an au pair with the house. But the nanny appeared later - when the children were one year and eight months old.

There were a lot of fears: would I be able to work, not worsen my standard of living, and even buy a bigger apartment. My mother and I have accumulated a safety net for a year based on spending 8,000-10,000 UAH per month. Expenses have increased significantly after the children’s first year of life: now a nanny costs UAH 6,000 per month. Plus doctors, massages, an osteopath, developmental programs, clothes, apartment furnishings, travel expenses - everything is double, everything is duplicated.

Money is also spent on myself: for example, on doctors and examinations, which I left for “after childbirth”. My body changes, time goes by - I updated my entire wardrobe, having previously spent money on a stylist so as not to make thoughtless purchases. This also includes expenses for additional education, courses, and a psychologist.

In the first year of my children’s life, my income was 20,000-30,000 UAH per month. As our needs grow, so does my mother’s income. New opportunities are opening up that I think were not available within the confines of an office, stability and adequate sleep. Apparently, the phrase “God will give a child, he will also give for a child” works exactly like that. As a result, we managed to expand and move to a larger apartment.


My children are now 11 years old. I always tried to work at full capacity, so my income did not change much. Immediately after the birth of my sons, I sat down and calculated how much I needed to work in order to pay for a nanny and live comfortably. Then I worked as a journalist. I figured out how much I could earn for one interview, how much time I needed and how much I would have to pay the nanny. I managed to earn somewhere between 20,000-30,000 UAH a month, and 2,500-3,000 UAH were spent on a nanny. then she charged 200 UAH per hour.

I never thought that work limited me. On the contrary, she manages to draw strength from her. I am encouraged by the thought that by working, I can give children more opportunities and a good education. My work is difficult, but interesting, I am constantly developing and learning. I also show this approach to children.

With each new child the situation changes. When my children were born, I started working full time, the nanny switched to a salary of 4,500 UAH. I started with a salary of 15,000 UAH, it gradually grew, then I started my own business - and the income increased to 25,000 UAH. There were months when it was possible to increase income to 40,000 - 45,000 UAH.

Thank you all for your attention, try hard and be happy4