The birth of a child often represents a significant break in the employment history of women in paid employment. We investigate whether this also applies to self-employed women. Our analyses show that self-employed women start having children later than women in paid employment. They also show that the birth of a child also has an impact on the employment of self-employed women: solo self-employed women are more likely to give up their professional status following a birth than self-employed women with employees or paid employed women. Due to the reduction in working hours because of the birth, gross monthly income falls more sharply for self-employed than for paid employed women. Self-employed mothers increase their working hours again more quickly than paid employed mothers.