Mariah Carey won't hire a nanny when her baby is born.

The 40-year-old singer - who announced she is expecting her first child with husband Nick Cannon last month - doesn't plan to have any help when her new arrival comes.

She said: "I'm going to be hands on, 'I wouldn't be like, 'Oh, I'm a having a child, yay! Let me get a nanny so I can give her the baby. Take the kid.' That doesn't work for me. I don't believe in that."

Mariah has also hinted she is planning to put her career on hold so she can completely focus on her child.

She added to Britain's OK! magazine: "You can get caught up in Hollywood-land and that's maybe not the best thing for kids, because they didn't ask for it. I don't know that I always felt safe as a child and that's nobody's fault. I feel like it's important to be responsible and to think, well maybe if I do this it's not the best thing for my child. You have to take a backseat a little bit, and as someone in the public eye you're not used to doing that."

Mariah is confident she and Nick, 30, will make great parents, although she isn't sure if she wants a big family.

She said: "I think we will make good parents and that we will be able to figure out how to do it properly. We'd be happy with one. We're so busy - if you have six kids running around no one gets what they need. What I want is to have children in a good way, with the right husband, with the right family life."