8 July 2025

Returning to work after having twins made a huge dent on one family’s finances, with mum Carmen going part-time and being left with just £200 of her monthly wages after paying for a childminder for care for two days a week.

Figures released by Twins Trust show that while 17% of families worked part-time before their pregnancy, after pregnancy, this figure more than doubled with 40% of families working part-time.

When Carmen and husband James started planning for a family, they made sure they had worked their way up the career ladder so they were in a good financial position to start a family. The couple, who have been together for 16 years and married for six years, started trying for a family but when they didn’t get pregnant after two years, chose the IVF route.

Carmen said: “The twins were very wanted, we waited quite a long time. It wasn’t until we got married that we decided to start a family. We both tried to progress in our careers and make sure we got to a financial position where we could start a family. We tried for two years and we realised it wasn’t happening so we had to go down the IVF route on the NHS and that was a long process.

"The first round failed so it was recommended to implant two embryos for the second round, to increase our chances of one succeeding. So it was a 'happy accident". It was a rather short-lived pregnancy as I gave birth five-and-a-half months later at 24 weeks in September 2023. Jude weighed 560g and Lara was 610g.” Jude and Lara were in NICU for four-and-a-half months. At the time, the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act was not in place. The act came into effect in April 2025, giving parents of babies who are in neonatal care for a continuous stay of seven full days or more the chance to take up to 12 weeks of leave, if eligible, on top of other leave they are entitled to. 

Carmen said: “I don’t think people know much of the world of NICU until they fall into it. The time was really tough. Overall we were very lucky but it hasn’t been an easy ride for either of the twins. I had to drop work at the last second. We knew with twins there was a risk of premature birth. I was trying to delay my maternity leave at that point so I took two months unpaid leave. I wanted to make sure I had as much maternity leave as I could with them at home, not when in hospital.

“At that time I was working full time so we could afford it but of course it’s never ideal. We weren’t spending much at the time, as I was just going to hospital and then going home.”

Carmen then started her maternity leave in December 2023.

“We wanted to have a full winter of the twins not going into childcare, as they were premature, so I returned to work in March 2025, adding holiday and unpaid leave onto the end of my leave," she said.

Carmen said they avoided nursery and chose to care for the twins at home initially, due to the fact that the twins were premature and had been in hospital. They wanted to avoid the high risk of re-hospitalisation if the twins caught a chest infection or any other conditions.

Carmen worked full-time during the pregnancy and went part-time in a different but more flexible role when she returned to work. Carmen is an operations manager for a restaurant group, while James works as an IT consultant. She added: “I’d worked for the same company for 16 years and have a good relationship with my director. I met my boss and said I was struggling to see what capacity I could come back to work in. I asked to go back working two days a week. They wanted me back, in any capacity and it was always an open conversation.

“Financially it doesn’t make any sense for me to go back to work. In an ideal world, I would have stayed at home until the twins were two. The reason I went back is because I’ve worked for the company for 16 years and I enjoy working there.”

The couple live in a small two-bedroom flat in Chiswick, and James’s wage covers the mortgage and general living costs, while Carmen’s part-time wage pays for the childminder, which costs £374 a week.

“My salary covers the childcare but that leaves me less than £200 surplus, which is why I say it’s not financially feasible for me to work.

“We’re not struggling but we aren’t able to save the way we used to save or do the things we used to do.

“It’s frustrating to see that the government always puts an emphasis on wanting women to go to back to work but they don’t do anything to help you to go back to work.

“It’s a constant worry about finances. We are just treading water at the moment," Carmen said.