Elsa Pataky admits the aftermath of her and Chris Hemsworth having their first child was "difficult".

Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky

Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky

The 'Fast & Furious 6' actress and her 34-year-old husband welcomed daughter India into the world in May 2012, just over a year after the couple got married and around the time the 'Thor' star was beginning to make it in Hollywood.

And Elsa admits the youngster's birth came at a "complicated" time because the pair had so much going on in their lives, but she knows her spouse - with whom she also has three-year-old twins Tristan and Sasha - will always put their family first and the fraught period only made them stronger.

She told Australia's ELLE magazine: "I think any time you start a family without knowing each other that much, it can be complicated.

"He was very young to be starting a family, and at the same time he was juggling that with his career and it was sometimes difficult, there was so much going on.

"But he was always trying to be the best dad and has never failed to make me feel like his family is the most important thing to him and [going through that] is how we've become so strong together."

The 41-year-old actress admitted having children had changed how she looks at her career, and thinks that is "unfair" because men don't always reconsider their position in life when they become parents.

She said: "It's interesting how you can be a successful woman who has been working her whole life, and then you have kids and suddenly your career isn't as important and you don't appreciate it as much.

"You just think, 'What am I doing? I have been fighting all my life for this and now I don't know if I really want it?'

"It's unfair in a way, because I don't think men go through that. But when you become a mom, everything that was important goes into second position. You change a lot, you mature, you see life differently and learn so many things."