Is this a decent business idea for pregnant women/mothers?

[neewred]

I'm a midwife wanting to increase my earning potential and looking to leave the NHS soon for a while host of reasons.

Still a very early idea, but was thinking of opening a centre that offers services such as:

Pregnancy/postnatal yoga
Pregnancy aromatherapy, massage, acupuncture etc.
Antenatal classes
Breastfeeding support
Perhaps private antenatal/postnatal appointments
Tongue tie cutting

You get the gist.

There must be a reason nobody is doing this yet? I feel like I'm missing something!

Breastfeeding support and tongue tie support would keep you busy in our area. I would only seek advice from a qualified lactation consultant not ‘just’ a midwife. A lot of the things for pregnant women would need to be outside standard work hours.

Apart from the tongue tie cutting and acupuncture, all of that's available at my local library.

I have additional breastfeeding training.

Yes I was thinking about offering evening and weekend appointments too. Although women can legally get time off work for things such as antenatal yoga etc.

I thought being a qualified midwife would be a unique selling point perhaps? Although that is a good point.

It sounds good.

Qualifications of staff would be very important.

There must be a reason nobody is doing this yet?

Probably the public liability and medical insurance premiums.

There's a ton of that going on where I live already, I'd do your research in your local area to see if the market is crowded already.

Antenatal classes
Breastfeeding support
Perhaps private antenatal/postnatal appointments
Tongue tie cutting

I can get all that for free at my local children's centre.

There is a market for pregnancy aromatherapy and yoga, etc, but generally either as an evening sideline for freelancers who pay a low rate for 1 hour's use of a church hall, or people whose FT business is aromatherapy/reflexology, etc, which will diversify their customer base and mean they can market more cheaply and efficiently.

If you have to pay rent or a mortgage on a space to work, I don't see the numbers stacking up.

And also you'd need to be competitive on pricing. If you want to open a centre, you'll be paying significant overheads. Pregnant women and new mums about to start maternity leave are likely to be reluctant to spend endless amount of cash, especially now. Usually people providing these services hire a venue as and when needed (eg yoga and baby massage teachers) and/or travel to see their customers (eg lactation consultants).

How many people would you hire, cause that's too much to do on your own?

It would be nice to have it all in one place, and I’ll sure there’s a yummy mummy crew in some areas who would pay for the convenience and nicer venue of private.

YY to pregnancy appointments being out of working hours. I have no idea whether you’re legally allowed time off for antenatal yoga, but no one vaguely professional is going to ask for that.

My plan was to start by hiring out spaces for classes, yoga studios etc.

Eventually increasing services offered and leasing a space.

Was also thinking of training in and offering sleep consultancy, weaning support, bottle refusal support etc.

I have no idea whether you’re legally allowed time off for antenatal yoga, but no one vaguely professional is going to ask for that

My instinct is that it's just way too much of a mishmash. You're trying to combine medical services that people would probably rather go to the NHS for, with "lifestyle"/wellness services that would need to be promoted completely differently. And if I'm doing yoga or having aromatherapy, I want a qualified yoga teacher or aromatherapist, not a midwife. The only way I could see it turning a profit would be if you could get basically all the wealthy women in an area coming to you for all of their pregnancy-related services, and the services you're thinking of are so different I don't see that happening.

You need to run the numbers properly. How many women in your area are actually going to be pregnant at any given time, and what fraction of them could actually afford and be willing to pay for any of these services? What are your baseline costs for rent, staff, insurance, goods?

Ok, this makes more sense, but you'll need a fair bit of money to have your own space eventually. I also think, no disrespect, but being an NHS midwife doesn't automatically make you qualified in all of the above areas. Some women may prefer professional Yoga teachers etc. A collaboration with other trained people might be a good plan longer term.

Sorry, I should have been more clear that I would be fully trained in all of this. Qualified yoga teacher etc. with the added benefit of being a midwife.

You'd be surprised how many women we get who have been injured in classes such as this with rubbish teachers that don't have a clue.

I think it depends on the area, a lot of women wouldn’t pay for this.

I have a studio that offers pregnancy yoga, it's a really challenging customer base as you constantly need to be acquiring new customers. They are only with you for a short amount of time so repeatedly filling classes is hard. Likewise with postnatal. Not saying it's not a good idea but it requires a lot of marketing. Good SEO. Good word of mouth. Good local marketing. It can all add up.

That's even worse. You'd have zero credibility as some kind of All-Knowing Baby Person. You'd just look like you can't focus and/or have a God complex. The trick to this kind of thing is to do one sufficiently profitable thing really well, and to be appealing to a wide enough client base for work to be steady.

If you want to retrain as a lactation consultant or a yoga teacher, knock yourself out. You will not make much money, but you might have a fulfilling and reasonably steady business. All of everything at once? There is absolutely no way you will be able to do it all well enough to get business.

I think you'd have to open outside of normal working hour as most pregnant women and mothers work these days, apart from a few months after having the baby.

Is there such a thing as a private midwife? Could you do that? I have no idea by the way..

You'd be surprised how many women we get who have been injured in classes such as this with rubbish teachers that don't have a clue.

Do you mean they are going to normal yoga or exercise classes and getting injured? I really can't imagine this happening with pregnancy yoga classes teachers have to do additional qualifications and they are incredibly gentle.

It's a thing, in theory. In practice, crippling malpractice insurance costs has driven it virtually into extinction.

Most people who have read up on feeding will want an IBCLC not a midwife with additional breastfeeding training. A midwife who is also an IBCLC would be very popular.

It also depends on your area and how high disposal incomes are given that there are charities providing free feeding support.

They are doing it you've just not got any local to you. It's not a new idea.

Thoughts for you.

You'll need to start with one thing and build on it. Unless you're full of capital to get it going.
You'll need to employ staff. Not all of thesr are easy to come by IBCLC and TT practitioner for example can earn alot privately solo. So you'd need to make it worth their while.
I have yet to meet a midwife (i know ALOT) even those woth some additional breastfeeding training, who are useful for anything beyond the basics. I'd only ever pay an IBCLC and one with solid reviews.
Premises you'll need to rent rooms in places to start with. Costs location environment all key here.