The issue is not that women feel forced to stay at home and be barefoot and pregnant, but more that mothers who work feel embarrassed to ask for what they need.
Alternatively, if barefoot luxury is more the order of the day, arrange a stay at Elsewhere near Mandrem, a collection of three 19th-century Portuguese homes (known as the Priest's House, the Bakery and the Piggery) on a mile or so of privately owned beach, perfect for bobbing about undisturbed with only gulls and ghosts of Portuguese past for company.