How do I find a mother's help?

[Needaname]

I'm expecting DC2 in December and was thinking about getting a mother's help for a few hours a day for the first three months or so.

Can anyone advise me how I'd go about this please? I looked at the fees on an agency site and they alone seemed to be as much as I planned the MH herself I'm in SW London. How much should I expect to pay and would it be easy to find someone for the short term? What duties would they be expecting to do? Would I have to employ them myself as I would with a nanny? TIA

Hi,
I used gumtree very recently to look for a mother's help (for afternoon help). We live in central London & I was expecting to have to pay £8-£10 ph which seems to be what we will be paying. I was looking for someone to help with the children at the end of the day - so helping with meal/bath/getting ready for bed and also being able to look after 1-2 children so I could take the 3rd child to activities etc.
The ad was about £25 & whilst I didn't receive loads of responses I did receive enough good responses to make the ad worth doing.

gumtree or childcare.co.uk is good, or if you prefer mothers help agency...?

I thought gumtree was free - how do you pay for an ad on there?

oh my goodness you have to pay to advertise for this now? well that is new

you pay to advertise on gumtree on London town only, other towns are free of charge

cheeky aren't they. I am in Hertfordshire but I think I still have to use the London site.