Would you have found this helpful?

[Babbyblue]

Hi everyone

I’m a midwife in NHS
In the future I’d like to do some kind of private work, potentially antenatal and postnatal care.
If there was a service near you where, in the early days (say first 6 weeks) someone would come to you for a few hours (up to you how long) and help you out with housework, cook you a meal, help you with breastfeeding, or simply hold the baby whilst you go to bed, would this have been of interest to you? I would also potentially offer an overnight shift where you and partner go to bed and I’d simply bring baby to you if breastfeeding but otherwise let you sleep.
Probably wouldn’t be a cheap option, maybe £20 an hour or something.
I know myself how hard the early days can be, but didn’t know if this was something someone would actually look for.
Thanks

That sounds like a great idea, but first impressions, £20/hour seems too low to charge. You are a skilled professional, don’t undersell yourself!

£20/hr is about right if OP isn’t a lactation consultant. Private mw care tends to be booked based on a minimum service agreement so 4-5 hrs a week minimum for 1-12 mths.

@Babbyblue I wouldn't hire a midwife because from my experience NHS medical staff have a paternalistic approach towards women in labour. For example, doing internal examinations without consent, performing episiotomies without consent and trying to bully them during labour. They also needlessly push formula on many babies and don't understand the value in breastfeeding.

Anyone helping out a new mother needs to defer to them and be supportive. I wouldn't be comfortable with someone that's had NHS midwife training in case they had too much of an attitude of "I know best and can override mother".

Sorry to hear you feel that way Lil!

Yes I would have loved this and actually reading it’s a thing makes me quite emotional.
first time mum. First grandchild but both sets of grandparents live too far to help. I had no experience of babies as none of my friends have them and I really needed help.
3C tear (that broke down) and significant blood loss, anticoagulant injections every day for 6 weeks. Desperately wanted to breastfeed but couldn’t get proper latch and was constantly running round like a headless chicken not knowing how to look after a screaming baby I never had the time to pump or have enough energy to produce a decent supply. I barely ate, rarely brushed my teeth, showers were weekly at best and my partner had to go back to work after just a week paternity leave where most was spent with me in hospital. To add to that a healthcare assistant on the night I came out of surgery and my baby had been at the breast for 5 hours straight and wouldn’t come off without screaming (normal I don’t know) but it was 2am and I needed help and advice and she just said to me I can’t feed him for you and walked away. I also lost a huge chunk of my nipple using nipple shields the day I got home. Found it stuck in the shield and my baby’s mouth with blood all over. Then the first two months involved me fighting many GPs to listen to me that he had a milk allergy, which he does and slowly coming to terms with the fact I have a very demanding baby. I developed postnatal depression which the GP said to rest more and exercise more (I walked 4-6 hours a day to get my baby to stop crying) and I can honestly say I hated every single day of my 6 month maternity leave. I love my baby but it was hell and if I’d have had some more support and advice right at the very beginning I think the story could have been very different. I’d have gladly paid for it too.

Not personal, I just don't feel that it would fit into our family environment that well. I like the 'newborn bubble' of just us and feel it would be odd having a stranger in the house pottering around while we're all bonding as a family. Maybe that's my own ignorance as it's not something I've ever heard of/thought about before.

Then, in terms of the help, we have quite a few family members that are close by and they'd happily help (for free) if we needed. I also think those family members would be somewhat offended if we hired help rather than coming to them for it. We're obviously fortunate to have that option which I'm sure won't be the case for all.

I would have probably found it useful but it's not something that I'd pay for as family did a lot of that for me.

I absolutely would have done in the early weeks when my husband first returned to work, especially with my first baby. I was quickly drifting into PND at the time, with no family nearby to offer support. I think having someone around regularly during the week might have prevented the PND for me, as so much of it was down to isolation and worrying I was getting everything wrong.

A few things to bear in mind, as a PP said you would need to think carefully about how you arrange your diary - people aren't necessarily going to think pre-natally that they need you, and when they do need you might need you ASAP. Also, you need to promote yourself really well as I don't think at that point in time I would have had the time or energy to even consider researching whether that kind of support was out there. But if I already knew about it I absolutely would have been straight on the phone!

Most importantly, you would need to do a lot of training to ensure your ability to identify and support mothers with PND was up to scratch. I would imagine a lot of people would come to you saying they are struggling but with absolutely no recognition of the fact they have PND. You would be in a position to really help, but obviously would need the knowledge and experience to know what to do.