We do. I'm 27 weeks pregnant and utterly fatigued and DS is a very high needs 21-month-old who is incredibly sweet and easygoing but very, very active and energetic. DH is gone most of the time and his current project will have him out of town for the entire month of August. We just moved across the country and have no friends or family in our new town, so we hired a mother's helper/housekeeper to come to the house for a few hours every day so I can get some rest and decompress a little bit. Her main duty is playing with DS but when he naps, she cleans. She's been a total blessing and I feel incredibly lucky that we found her. Most housekeepers won't do childcare, and most childcare workers won't do housework. To find someone happy and willing to do both was huge and I can't recommend it highly enough.
I don't know if most women of the past had housekeepers and paid help, but I do know that intergenerational households were much more common back in the day. SAHMs had mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunties, cousins, and others who lived with or near them and could pitch in on childcare duties and chores. I don't think human beings were designed to try to do it all with no help. Not that I think it's not possible--I mean, I did it for quite awhile...but there's no shame in getting help if you can. Self-care is so important and I think we women sometimes sell ourselves short in that regard. At least, I know I have in the past. It's taken me a lot of hard experiences to finally admit that I have needs, too.
