A call has been made for Stormont to enact a childcare strategy that subsidises costs and leads to better terms and conditions for those working in the sector, after one mum calculated her family's costs.
Dr Naomh Gallagher, an epidemiologist, recently worked out the costs of childcare over three years for her first three children, with two of those attending three days a week.
The staggering figure came in at around £40,000, prompting her to highlight the need for help for struggling families.
Read more: Calls for childcare support to help mums resume their careers
"It's an incredible cost for families to bear," Naomh told Belfast Live.
"I think Northern Ireland and the UK have the second or third highest childcare in Europe.
"The average cost for parents is 24% of their income, whereas in Sweden it's 3%, so there is massive scope for improvement.
"We are very lucky position that we have two very good jobs and we can afford the cost.
"But there's some people and more often than not it's women who have to leave their jobs because they just can't afford the cost of childcare.
"It pushes people out of the work market and then they have to try and get back into a career a few years later, it has lots of ripples."
Naomh said she felt lucky that they were able to absorb the cost, but said urgent help was needed for those who couldn't.
"I recognise that my family and I are pretty fortunate in that we have help, so we don't need full-time childcare and although it's expensive, I've never found myself having to consider giving up my job," she said.
"But I just think it's for all the families who maybe do find themselves struggling and someone has to give up a job to afford it, we really need to get something in place."
She went on to praise those who had cared for her children and said a two-pronged approach was needed to tackle the childcare issue.
"We went to a really reasonably priced nursery and they're a charity so anything the make goes back into the organisation, so it's not like someone is making a big profit," she added.
"They've lost people to better paid jobs, because it's hard to keep hold of people when you can't offer them better wages.
"Really what we need is for the childcare strategy to be published at Stormont and acted upon.
"Even in England, Scotland Wales, I think they get 30 free hours a week of childcare from age three.
"We don't even get that and although the UK is so bad, we're the worst off within the UK then.
"They do need to subsidise childcare for the 0-3 age in some way, it's just so expensive and there is limited provision."
She went on to say that the second factor in alleviating pressure for families would be to reward those involved in the vital work of childcare.
"They need better pay and terms and conditions for those who work in the childcare sector," she said.
"That might lead to more spaces in the sector because people might actually want to work in it and stay in it.
"People are leaving and because workers are overwhelmingly women, they're leaving for similar reasons as well, where they can't afford to pay for childcare themselves."
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