Hi TracieB, I was lucky in this respect, my mother took on the job of childminder (paid). However although my two are long past the need for care here are a few lessons I learnt.
1 You aren't superwoman, don't try to be, your child wants time with you (especially to help with homework) not a fantastically spotless, tidy house.
2 Get your OH involved, can he pick up/drop one day a week for example to give you a break. Mine wasn't ever so helpful with that but he did do a short day on Fridays.
3 Don't beat yourself up about it, lots of use have to work for lots of reasons, and Princes William and Harry turned out ok (that was a bit of advice given to me by my health visitor).
4 Book a day or 2 off work when you first start using the childminder, but treat it as a test run so you can get that awful first school day or so over without stressing at work.
5 Don't be afraid to ask for help, your childs friends mums will be glad to help out on occasion so that she can go play with friends, so long as you don't presume and overdo it, you can reciprocate at weekends. It's important they don't miss out on socialising with their friends, it's astonishing how quickly they get a social life.
A good friend of mine used a childminder and she did a lot of careful research first, visiting a couple of times and doing some trial runs before she made her choice. It did work out very well, but I think it's good advice that if you have the slightest misgiving just walk away and find someone else.
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Jules
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