We place maternity nurses in a wide variety of lovely positions both here in the UK and overseas. Obviously each family has varying requirements and these placements can be for as little as a few days up to three/four months or indeed extend to even longer. Our maternity nurses often travel far and wide and go to many different countries in the world. Some may be based with the family in one country, for example we have a maternity nurse currently working in New York. Other positions may involve travel with the family for holiday or business reasons. Below is an example of one such maternity nurse position:
A client, Sarah, needed a maternity nurse for four months in Devon but needed the nurse to be willing to travel for a few weeks with the family when they moved back to Puerto Rico. We placed one of our Devon-based maternity nurses in this position, the lovely and very experienced Sheila. Sheila did her initial four months with this family taking care of their first baby, a gorgeous little boy. However, Sarah found Sheila’s help invaluable and asked her to extend the booking. Sheila ended up staying with the family for one year spending time with them in both Devon and Puerto Rico. Sarah said:
“As a first-time mother, Sheila’s help this year was absolutely invaluable. She worked 24/5 in the UK and 24/6 in Puerto Rico and taught me everything I know about how to care for a newborn, from feeding, bathing, setting a schedule for us both and she provided so much reassurance. I felt totally confident in her depth of knowledge and experience and couldn’t have asked for more in terms of helping my son to make a great start in life. I am very grateful to her for all her help, wisdom and good sense of humour through everything!”
Sheila added,
“I thoroughly enjoyed my time working for Sarah looking after her gorgeous son who was a delightful baby. It was a new experience travelling backwards and forwards across the world with a small baby which could have been challenging, but with teamwork and humour it was not stressful! He adapted to new environments when we travelled really easily, taking everything as a new adventure. When in Puerto Rico it was very much a sole charge role as both parents were working long hours and I needed to guide their baby through important developmental stages such as weaning, which he took in his stride, despite the food being different to what he would have been used to in the UK. Watching him develop into a strong, resilient one year old was very rewarding. Sarah, her husband and their extended family were all extremely friendly and welcoming and made me feel very much part of the team. This was a super family to work for and it was very hard to leave after one year.”
Bookings for our nurses can be anything from a few days to a few weeks or months and we also have nurses who are happy to do nights only. We do our utmost to accommodate families in whatever they are looking for and as always our absolute goal is to try to match the right family with the right maternity nurse. It of course needs to work for both sides as it is such a personal situation to have a maternity nurse living in your home. Families can be assured that whomever we recommend is highly experienced, well qualified and very importantly has excellent references but what we need the client and maternity nurse to do is to ascertain if they feel the relationship between them both will work well. Only they can make this judgement, which is why we always recommend a video-call between the two if a face-to-face meeting is not possible.
Our nurses are handpicked by Lucy and myself based on a high level of criteria. Often they have been recommended to us by another nurse who works with us already.
Lucy and I like to look after our maternity nurses and clients during the placement and will keep in regular contact with both. We are always on hand for any additional support, help or advice.
Do get in touch with us if you’re having a baby and would like some help. You can find more information here.