In three different parts of the world – Beijing, Brussels and Jakarta – Aiyar strives to keep up with both her babies and bylines, with varying success. That result is a hilarious chronicle of overly knowledgeable nannies, chewed nipples and a dwindling salary, interwoven with insightful inquiries into the nature of choice, value, fairness and identity.

Babies and Bylines is a parenting memoir by a journalist who evenhandedly reports on the battles a mother must fight with herself, and the world, as she struggles with issues that seem to stubbornly remain the same, generation after generation: finding a work–life balance,negotiating marital equality and taming toddlers. Thought-provoking and irreverent, Babies and Bylines is as much a call to arms for women in the workplace as it is a laugh-out-loud stress buster for those contemplating parenthood or experiencing it.