Has anyone hired a maternity nurse? If so, what qualifications have they had?

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Do they need to be a midwife? Or would a general nurse with a breastfeeding course and experience of caring for newborns do?

Why??????????????????

maternity nurse is not a protected term like dentist for example. so really anyone can call themselves a maternity nurse. i believe GF set herself up as a maternity nurse. commonly, ex nursery nurses or nannies go into maternity nursing.

Thinking 'bout it, mars. Just thinkin'

Why?????????????????

have you looked into postnatal doulas as another oprion?

But twinkle, isn't a maternity nurse there to care for you and baby, not clean your house??? Sounds like you should have paid a cleaner instead. Thats what I did for 2 months after my section.

Maybe, but what about common humanity? How could anyone watch a woman who's just had major surgery clear up a dead mouse whether it's in the job description or not?!

i am sure there are some sooper dooper maternity nurses out there

the 3 i have met were not shining examples of their profession

a post natal doula is a good thing IMHO, as tend to be more flexible and more inclined to nurture you as a mother.. are you thinking of a change in career path bubble?

and agree with daisy.....even if it is not in the job description, what happened to just being plain old fashioned nice??

Hey, why not ! If I had had the money I would have had a mat nurse too.

Imagine, having someone do the nightshift, a whole night's sleep ! Wonderful.

I know lots of people who had a mat nurse and their first few weeks as parents were a whole lot easier.

no absolutely don't need to be a midwife. need to know about babies, not how to deliver them safely

experience is a lot more useful than courses re maternity nurses I find. babies are all so different and you really want someone who has had 15+ jobs with 15+ babies,who has seen a bit of reflux, a bit of jaundice, dream bfeeders, tonguetied feeders, gushing choking letdown, 40mins on each side nightmares, etc etc etc

if they have previously been nannies that is generally good because they are usually good with siblings and know how to get on in a family context, but I'd say experience is all. and obviously willingness to get stuck in (and mop up dead mice)
most of the ones I know are the sort of incredibly energetic people who can't bear to sit around and who spend the 30mins when you are feeding at 3am catching up on a bit of ironing

My mother recently had surgery for a prolapse and needed some extra help around the house and garden. She advertised, and found a local woman in her late 50s who sells herself as a "fairy godmother" to new mothers and older women alike, basically coming to the house and doing whatever is needed, be that cleaning, cooking, shopping, calming the baby, running the bath and cleaning up afterwards... anything that needs to be done, basically. She didn't have specialist baby qualifications, but was full of common sense, knew everyone in the locality and could find any service you might need instantly.

Can you find someone like that? Much cheaper than a "maternity nurse" and will leave you to look after the baby without interfering while looking after you and your house.

They don't need to be a midwife. The only accredited course (at the moment) is the course with M.N.T. (maternity nanny training). These courses are usually held at Reading University. I took this course in 2004 which was excellent but IMO experience is essential. I'm doing 2 nights for someone starting next week and an afternoon. I'm hoping to nurture the mother aswell as she has had a c-section and all mums need support. I think there are some mat nurses who won't do anything other than look after the babies.

Am avid fan of mat nurses,( doulas probably v.similar though not around so much...), we have had same one for all 5 of our children,( she calls us once a year if she hasn't heard from us )...and she's due another visit in October for no6 !! She is lovely, and would definitely do dead mice....She is midwife trained but not essential imo...echo PPH on essential qualities btw...

Mine is a midwife but its not essential

Mainly as we wanted someone willing to be flexible and able to help on the medical side too.

The agreement is that she is willing to do small chores - making me tea or sandwich and presumably cleaning mishaps. The madams who were above that were, politely shown the door,

I had a full time maternity nurse with my first child for 2 weeks. Why? Because I could quite honestly. I had no family to help, was the first to have a baby out of my friends, had never handled a baby. It was the best money we could ever have spent at the time.

She was a lovely older lady who had helped out friends who had babies and started getting asked to help out with more babies. I think that she was nurse originally but she was just confident, caring and helped me through the first couple of weeks. I have no idea of her qualifications, I don't know if she had a CRB, I don't suppose she had been on any courses but I knew of at least 15 families she had worked for repeatedly. I met her and interviewed her in another families home and knew she was right.

She didn't clean but she did all my cooking, tidying, flower arranging, and she was fab.

She wasn't good with Breastfeeding though, V old fashioned which I only realised in hindsight and generally I don't think that maternity nurses are good for mothers who want to EBF and you'd be better off with a postnatal doula.

For my 2 subsequent children I had a night nurse 2 or 3 nights a week, 10-7 for 6 weeks. This actually worked better as I didn't need someone around all the time but I did need some sleep so I fed at 10, left expressed milk for the middle of the night and fed at 6. Again, I have no idea of her qualifications but knew loads of people who used her and she was also lovely.

i work as a night nanny and doula and am shocked that a maternity nurse watched a new mum clear up a dead mouse.

I am not a cleaner but in one of the homes I was working in, the dad dropped a glass onto the kitchen floor and it smashed. I hoovered it up and washed the floor so that there were no little bits of glass left on the floor.

I was there to help the new parents not watch them!

I wonder why ladyfriday reopened this old thread [hmmm]