'Such a lack of childcare'

boom town laeticia hayes

Not only was Laeticia Haynes five months pregnant when she made the move from Canada to North Dakota -- it was also the middle of January, when temperatures regularly plunge into the negative teens.

Her husband had been going back and forth to Williston for more than a year working as a superintendent for an oil company overseeing rigs in the oilfields. So she finally decided that the family -- they also have a toddler daughter -- needed to all be in one place.

After giving birth to her second child she had multiple job opportunities. But daycare is so hard to come by in the area, the hours just weren't manageable. Haynes looked at seven different child care programs, and the only one that had room couldn't take an infant (her youngest son is now four months old).

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Luckily, she found a job with a real estate developer who lets her work around her kids' schedules. And she finally found a small daycare program through her pediatrician.

"It's sad because there's such a lack of childcare here that I know of many career women who had great jobs like a clinical counselor, but they have given up their professions and ended up staying home," said Haynes.

First published October 16, 2014: 6:43 PM ET

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