When you become parents, your life will change forever. A maternity nurse is someone who is able to guide you through this process and build your confidence as new parents. A maternity nurse will listen to your requirements and provide you with a bespoke service aimed at supporting you and your newborn, getting you both settled into your new life. Maternity nurses have extensive experience to offer to you and can help with feeding, whether you are breastfeeding or bottle feeding, bathing, changing and settling the baby and taking care of the baby’s laundry and nursery.
Maternity Nurses encourage parents’ involvement and confidence in handling their new baby and promote a positive relationship between other siblings and the new addition.
A Maternity Nurse will help the mother from the time she leaves hospital until both mother and baby are settled into a routine at home. The reasons why a family chooses to have a maternity nurse can vary from it being their first child to having had a traumatic birthing experience.
A typical maternity nurse placement has been around 6 weeks, however, depending on your requirements a maternity nurse can stay with you and your family from between 1 week and 6 months. Maternity nurses normally begin their placement with family as soon as the mother is home from the hospital. However, if you feel as though you would benefit from a maternity nurse after you have been home for a few weeks, this could be due to a number of reasons, a maternity nurse is able to join you. Maternity nurses are newborn specialists, so if you feel as though you would benefit from a helping hand but your child is closer to 3 to 6 months old, you would be better suited to looking at a full time nanny that has newborn experience.
When you employ a maternity nurse, you can either employ them on a live in 24 hour basis or on an hourly basis. A maternity nurse who is employed on a 24 hour schedule, will be on hand 24 hours a day for either 5 or 6 days per week. They will live in with the family, they may share the baby’s room or have their own separate room, this depends on the hiring family. There may be a bathroom for the maternity nurse to use or they may share a bathroom with the baby or other siblings. All food will be provided for a maternity nurse by the hiring family. They should cook their own meals and clean up after themselves at all times. The maternity nurse will not be responsible to prepare meals for the older children if there are any in the home.
A maternity nurse is there help provide new parents with a smooth transition to their baby, whether this is their first or fifth child. A maternity nurse will teach about the different development stages of the new baby, and encourage involvement and confidence from the parents. A maternity nurse understands the impact that a newborn can have on a family and will be able to help you navigate the changes that come with your new little one. A maternity nurse’s duties will differ slightly if you are breastfeeding or bottle feeding. A maternity nurse will always discuss with the parents, all aspect of the baby’s care and development. If they feel there are any concerns about the baby, or if it becomes ill, the maternity nurse should inform the parents and doctor immediately. The whereabouts of the parents need to be known by the nurse at all times in case of an emergency which is why it is important to exchange all contact details at the start of the placement.
A maternity nurse’s duties can include but are not exclusive to:
Maternity nurses have significantly higher salary rate than full time nannies. This is due to the hours they work, the expertise they have with newborns and the guidance they can provide a family. Due to the nature of the industry, maternity nurses are able to dictate to a family their rate instead of vice versa. So while there are market rates for maternity nurses, often maternity nurses will fall outside of these margins due to the years of experience they have, the type of experience they have, any qualifications they hold and the type of position it is. If you require care for multiple newborns, the care required from the maternity nurse will increase and they reserve the right to increase their fee’s to match this. This is usually anything between 50% to 100% of their original rate.
The current market rates for maternity nurses caring for one newborn are as follows:
£180 to £250 per 24 hours if you are hiring a maternity nurse on a 24 hour basis or £18 to £25 per hour if you are hiring on an hourly or shift basis.
Due to the temporary placements of maternity nurses, maternity nurses are always self-employed and are paid in a gross salary. This means that they will be responsible for paying their National Insurance and Tax contributions themselves.
Our years of experience within the maternity nurse industry has meant our consultants are well regarded within the industry and have built up a database of exceptional maternity nurses.
Our consultants believe that you should feel supported the very moment you contact us, and will not stop once you have found your maternity nurse that perfectly compliments your care needs. Our consultants are always on hand to assist at any point during your search and even after you have found the maternity nurse for you.
Recruitment agencies that specialise in childcare such as Little Ones take the hassle of resourcing potential candidates from you and will only present you with the best of the best that we meet. We bring them into the office for a face to face interview where their experience and qualifications are discussed at length and we are able to obtain verbal references which we then personally check ourselves.
From the very first call, your expert maternity nurse consultant will guide you through what your options are, what would suit your requirements most closely and put your mind to rest with any concerns you might have regarding your maternity nurse search. Our consultants are also on hand to help and answer any questions you might have along the way, using an agency that specialises in maternity nurses like Little Ones means you have a direct line to the experts. No matter what stage you are at with your maternity nurse search, our consultants are on hand to assist.
Our years of experience within the maternity nurse industry means we know what it takes to be an exceptional maternity nurse, which is why all the maternity nurse we work with are the best of the best that are available. We pride ourselves on providing a premium level of service and care for our clients because we expect the same from our maternity nurse. We maintain the highest standards and expect the best from our maternity nurse because we know you expect the best for yourself.
Here at Little Ones, we pride ourselves on being able to delicately align a premium, luxury service for an aspect of your life that is so personal.
Using an agency that specialises in maternity nurse for your home like Little Ones means you can be sure you will receive support from every side, we will take the stress of finding a maternity nurse from you and present you with maternity nurse options that perfectly aligns with your maternity nurse needs and your schedule.
We work with your family to find solutions, whatever your needs. To make perfect and seamless placements is Little Ones ethos.
