There's a little-spoken-about reality among female founders: The life stage at which women are starting companies happens to coincide, for many, with the time they also decide to have a baby.
According to Inc. and Fast Company's 2018 State of Women and Entrepreneurship survey, 63 percent of female founders have kids, and 13 percent of those plan to have more. Twenty percent of the ones who aren't mothers intend to have kids.
Being an entrepreneur and having a baby is inspiring--but messy. Trying to get pregnant can be emotionally excruciating. Pregnancy messes with your hormones. Childbirth wrecks your body. All this, while you also happen to be running a company. These entrepreneurs on Inc.'s Female Founders 100 open up about everything from IVF and "pregnancy brain" to pumping between investor meetings.