A new book by television producer Jayne Anderson has cast a light on the lives of working women with some revealing results.

Former federal minister Jackie Kelly was interviewed for the book and conceded while she had one and sometimes two nannies to help during her career, she still felt her life was "chaos".

Kelly reveals in the book, Working It Out: Career, Family and You that she weaned her daughter at four months so that she could attend an APEC meeting in Korea and leave the baby at home with a nanny.

"It was all, I suppose, very traumatic and work dictated when things occurred," she said.

Opposition deputy leader Tanya Plibersek was also interviewed in the book and admitted she sometimes felt pangs of longing if she was out and about for work and saw a mother enjoying time with her child.

But, she added that: "I get so much reward from my work that, if I had given up work to raise children, I think I would probably be a frustrated person".

Surgeon Fiona Wood, who has six children, was named Australian of the Year but was still conflicted about being a role model for working women because "I feel guilty when I have time for myself". She sleeps about six hours a night.

"Now and again I feel like I could sleep for a month," she said in the book.

Actress Rachel Ward told Anderson that her husband, fellow actor Bryan Brown was the reason she "survived early motherhood".

"[Men] have to take half the load. Bryan does more," she said in the book, adding "My husband jokes that I don't know where the washing machine is and I don't really".

Federal Court judge Annabelle Bennett in her story revealed she returned to work full-time when her third child was just two weeks old and he was cared for at home by a nanny.

"I felt guilty. There's no doubt about that, most working mothers I think feel guilty," she told Anderson.

Bennett believes she missed out on more than her children did. And as for having it all?

"You can do it all at the same time, but not necessarily each one to the maximum degree possible," Bennett said.

Anderson spent eight years researching and writing her book. She came to a number of conclusions – stressing they are her own and the reader can make up their own mind.

Chief among her conclusions was that highly successful career women "usually have an enormous amount of support at home".

Many of the women had nannies, usually live-in. Fiona Wood had daily babysitters. Tanya Plibersek's husband was able to take six months' unpaid leave when their first child was born. Others had family to lend a hand.

"Initially I wanted to find out how women were combining a successful career and motherhood and I would say a lot of women do it by having a lot of support at home and often that means a nanny," Anderson said.

But since starting her research in 2006, she believes women are more often juggling career and home through a variety of measures – choosing to work part-time, using a nanny or other paid care, bringing in extended family such as grandparents to help carry the load.

Anderson also found there was "no single right way to combined parenthood and paid work".

"There are many different ways to do it and I think people should be true to themselves when they make those choices. Some people want to work full-time, some people want to work part-time and some people don't want to have a paid job and I really think it's up to the individual to decide what they want to do and what's best for their family."

Anderson had three children in five years while working as a producer for the now-defunct Channel Nine current affairs show Sunday. She and her husband Peter worked at different times of the week and took it in turns to care for the children. Her parents helped one day a week and she got a babysitter another day of the week or worked from home.

"It was very much juggle, juggle, juggle and it meant Peter and I didn't see much of each other," she said.

When Anderson's job description changed and she had less flexibility, she decided to walk away from her position and spend more time with her children. She now has four children aged from four to 17.

"I thought I was missing out on too much in their lives," she said.

Anderson's situation got her thinking, especially when she had been raised thinking she could have it all.

"I'd always been told I could do both – have a career and a family. And I really wanted to find out how other women were managing to combine motherhood and paid work so I decided to go in search of answers," she said.

There are some revealing confessions from some of the women. Anti-nuclear power campaigner Helen Caldicott and her daughter Penny were both interviewed for the book and both agreed she was not there enough for her children, something that obviously still pains her daughter, and which prompted them both to seek counselling.

Lawyer Delwyn Everard returned to work part-time when her son Jasper was just six-weeks-old. Over the years she worked part-time and full-time and used long-day care, after-school care and nannies to care for her children. She also had a year off.

Neither she nor Jasper believe they missed out on anything. "She was always there for me when I really needed her," Jasper, now a university student, said in the book.

But Everard does say in the book that her children, then 12 and 15, both "burst into tears" when she told them she was relinquishing her partnership and going back to part-time work.

Anderson believes women can "have it all"; combining motherhood and paid work. A key to that is having flexibility in work arrangements "so you can see your children as well", whether that's working later or earlier or part-time or at home or in a workplace.

"I also think it's important for women to ask for help and to accept help and I don't think it's particularly helpful to criticise people's choices. It's what's right for you," she said.