Postnatal help/childcare

[user1484986087]

Hi all,

I am looking for some advice.

First pregnancy, first time mother at 40. Don't know anything about looking after babies and don't have family close by to help out once the baby is born, it is due in June.

I know I will need some help with looking after and learning to look after the baby when it arrives. My husband is generally good with children (I have 3 stepchildren who visit every other weekend) but he only has the standard 2 week paternity leave plus he will need to look after the stepchildren when they are staying with us.

My question is whether I should hire a postnatal doula, maternity nurse,night nurse or combination of any for the first 6 weeks following the birth? I am thinking that I would like full time (or at least 8 hrs per day) assistance plus a night nurse for weekends when the stepkids are here/when I really need sleep...but I don't know and I want to minimise coat where possible. After the 6 weeks, I would like to scale down the level of care ad hopefully by then I will have a better idea of looking after baby and will just need some everyday help plus care whilst I need to go for a haircut, go to the gym etc. I am only taking 6 months maternity leave due to financial considerations so will be looking at daycare and maybe the occasional nanny/night nanny at that stage.

Does anyone have any recommendations plus does anyone have good experience of certain agencies or know where I should start looking for childcare? I have seen a website called childcare.co,uk but I don't know if it is recognised as a good tool in finding childcare.

Any help much appreciated! Thank you :-)

[user1484986087]

I should say that I live in west London.