Would you use this postpartum service?

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I'm thinking to start up a business offering a postpartum wellbeing service. I lived in the middle east + N Africa for several years and the women there have a 40 day rest period postpartum, where they get special food made for them with certain ingredients that are high in protein and nutrients that nourish and 'warm' the body. This is mostly in the form of several types of soups. I'm an experienced mother of 5 DC who are older now. I have a masters in legal field.

Package 1: A week worth of soup (7 soups) delivered to your door. You could select which type of soups, day 1 (and possibly 2) would be fresh, the remaining ones frozen.

Cost, Inc delivery £35

Package 2: wellbeing visits, where I could supervise baby and existing children whilst mum sleeps/bathes/rests. And/or does a 'wellbeing clean', so a surface clean/tidy just to make room looks more presentable, dishes washed, maybe put a wash on etc.

Cost: £16.50 per hour

Package 3: Home from Hospital morning: on morning of discharge I visit your home to change bed sheets, do surface clean of bedroom or wherever else mother will sleep.

Cost: £16.50 per hour. A maximum of 3 hours at a time.

Please give me any feedback and whether you think there will be a market for this.

That is extraordinarily good value. Not so sure about the soup with so many soups/ food deliveries in supermarkets theses days.

lovely idea -

you could combine 2 and 3 - be on hand to do what's asked and you will define what you're willing to do, eg, look after older children, do the school run for them, do the ironing, light cooking, change sheets, change nappies etc. I'm not sure no3 on its own is needed.

im not sure you need no1. Instead bringing them
your home
cooked meals could be an added extra. And £16.50 sounds a bit cheap!

I don’t like the soup idea, but I do like the other offerings. Perhaps you could add in bringing a soup with to those packages.

The soups are middle eastern based so not something you'd be able to buy in a supermarket. Think along the lines of a Moroccan harira (bone broth based tomato soup) with chickpeas, fenugreek, harissa paste. The soups are all bone broths but could be vegetarian I suppose.

All the packages are separate from each other (although perhaps if bought in combination a discount could be applied?) so option for wellbeing visit as a standalone is fine.

Not sure I'd want soups for myself only when DH also needs to eat. I realise yours are home-made, but I could buy even an M&S soup for both us for half that price.

A friend was a qualified midwife who provided post natal care privately. In Mrs Beetons books it was a called a monthly nurse- because they generally stayed 1 mth after birth. My friend provided similar services, but also lactation advice and support, sleep training and much more. Personally, I'd use the services of a qualified midwife over someone with a masters in a legal field and their own children. Just being honest, but I'm sure you are great OP.

Yes I would totally do this- if I liked you. I think you’d need to make a point of an initial meeting to scope one another out, because having anyone in the home in the first few days after birth - I’d need that person to feel safe, nurturing and sensitive.

I like the sound of the nourishing food, but think many women have a lot of help with this in the early days, but it’s over those first 40 days it starts to wane. I’d be interested in offers of food like this for longer, or other food that the rest of the family might eat?

And 2 and 3 sound great. I’d imagine you need clear boundaries on what you do and don’t. Agree £16.50 sounds like good value.

Also a "Twilight Sleep" option where I basically do an overnight with the baby to give the mum a rest. This is not a sleep training service, literally just to give parents a night off.

Do you not need to get hygiene ratings and stuff if you are producing food that people are paying for?

All feedback very welcome, thanks! Yes totally understand wanting a midwife over a random mum, would a midwife not be substantially more expensive though? The point of the service is to aid the well-being of the mum through practical help, rather than expert advice.
The rationale behind soup for mum only (nothing stopping dad having some though) is that the ingredients are good for the pp body. Dad hasn't given birth so can pick up soup from Tesco for himself.

Yes of course, that + insurance is a must.

I was coming on to say this. You will need food hygiene certification and then to be regularly inspected and most grass roots food prep services find that financially prohibitive. The rest of what you offer is just basic home help or cleaning services but may be of interest to new mums with clever marketing. The masters in legal services isn’t going to be here or there though unless you are going to help them sue the hospital they gave birth in (!) so I’d leave that out. Lawyers aren’t particularly known for our cuddly nurturing side so wouldn’t be the obvious choice I suspect post partum 😀

I wouldn't. I didn't want to be eating any special food that someone had decided was what I needed or have anyone coming in and getting in my way. I very much wanted to just crack on and make it all my new normal asap.

Of course it's totally optional, no one is going to be force fed 😄. Great that you were able to crack on from day 1!

I didn't mention the legalities in the OP as I'm just asking if this is something that might work. I'm very aware there are certification procedures that need to be considered.
My legal background isn't relevant at all obviously and won't be part of the pitch 😅

I don't like the soup idea. If I've just birthed a human I'm probably eating toast.

The cleaning sounds like half arsed idea, either clean or don't clean, coming around doing "surface clean" is going to piss people off. Do you just Wang their stuff in a drawer?

£16.50 is less than I pay my cleaner but she actually cleans.

I think you are offering mothers' help, with soup. Sounds odd.

Toast isn't nourishing though, which is the whole point of the premise. I totally get though that not everyone will see the point or even want to eat soup. I do think there is a sort of demograph that would be the target re the soup.

Well obviously nobody is being force fed. You wanted feedback on whether people would use the service or not. I'm giving you a viewpoint of someone who wouldn't use it and why to help you gauge demand as you requested.

Thanks for the feedback, totally get it. I would not have wanted someone in my home either when I had mine, see it differently now though.

Bumping

Do you live in an area with a lot of people of Middle Eastern and African origin? They may have more appreciation of the soup idea, from a white British perspective soup is definitely not something I’d want to eat - I don’t think I put my babies down at all for the first week as was trying to breastfeed so it would be pretty hard to eat soup, it would drip onto them!

Really everything else you’re suggesting already exists as a service - with our second baby we had a night nanny who covered some nights so I could sleep, we had a cleaner, we had Deliveroo and frozen ready meals, we had a mothers help who would look after baby while I played with the toddler or would tidy up/make meals etc.

So maybe your real service here is the healing soups? Or do you see yourself in more of a general mothers help role, and could offer the soups as part of that?

There seems to be alot of services here that others would have more experience in eg hiring a qualified nanny, cleaner. Have you covered the legal nessecities in your costings; enhanced DBS checks, food hygiene, public liabilty.

I think what you're offering is close to a post-natal doula service, which is already relatively established as a thing, but those doulas probably have additional accreditation in infant feeding support etc. Check out Doula UK, which has a directory of doulas who offer a postnatal package

Since having my child in 2024 I've done a lot of research on the "Mothers Help" idea. I am planning to retrain as a Doula / night nanny in the near future when funds allow. Here are my thoughts (as a mother);

Package A) Lots of meal prep / delivery companies out there. I'd want a lot more than just soup delivered... what about the other meals? Breakfast pots / overnight oats / etc. Dinners? Also... it's all well and good saying Dad can pop to Tesco but if he's doing that he may as well buy my meals there. I understand the nutrional value add but perhaps you could expand your menu to include a 2nd soup for non-birthing parents at a cheaper rate?

Package B) A wellbeing clean sounds a bit wishy washy... I want a deep clean! I had a cleaner once a week post partum for the first month, sent DH to the laundrette. I absolutely didn't care about surface mess in my post partum, I care about actual dirt.

In regards to allowing a stranger into my home to mind my baby or toddler whilst I slept or bathed or did other things around the house, I would insist that person was vetted and had childcare and first aid qualifications. I'd pay more than £16.50 but the person would need to be suitably qualified. A friend of mine actually has a nanny who used to come in twice a week for 3 hours post partum and 2 years later she still has this nanny doing the same hours every week with her toddler so she can get some housework etc done.

Package C) Again I'd probably just hire a regular cleaner?

I’d be more likely to hire a doula and then a separate meal service (I don’t want soup all the time and I understand nutrition) than a random without any qualifications in either postnatal care or nutrition. But to be honest, I’d be unlikely to do either so perhaps I’m not the right person to be answering!