Hiring a Newborn Care Specialist? Here's What You Can Expect
Whether you are a first-time parent or you’ve been through this experience a number of times before, the postpartum period is not one to take lightly. You have just been through a life-changing, earth-shattering, exciting, intimate, exhausting, and deeply personal transition, and welcoming your new little one home brings with it a whole slew of emotions and “new normals.”
Whatever this experience looks like for you—and it will be unique and personal for everyone—we want to honor that, hold space for the complexity of this fourth trimester season, and offer insight into what “building your village” might look like when it comes to newborn care options.
At Nanny Harmony, we proudly offer placements for Newborn Care Specialists. A Newborn Care Specialist is a highly-trained and certified individual who is able to walk you through all aspects of care for your newborn during those pivotal first few months of life. Due to their extensive training, you can rest assured that they are more than equipped to lead the way in your home, from day one. They nurture and care for your new baby so that you have the time, space, and support to truly rest and recover. The specific duties, schedule, and duration of NCS contracts can certainly range, so we would love to guide you through your options and how these might vary from one NCS to the next.
In order to do so, let’s explore some common questions and considerations families have when they begin their newborn care search:
What sorts of tasks does a Newborn Care Specialist take on?
While some of this will depend on the NCS, it is standard for them to handle all aspects of care for your newborn. They are experts in diapering, swaddling, soothing, bathing, feeding strategies and support, developmental milestones, establishing healthy and sustainable sleep habits, alerting you to any common or uncommon medical concerns that may come up so that you can check in with your medical provider, and more.
On top of this, they can often assist with tasks like bottle preparation, washing and sterilizing of bottles and pump parts, care for multiples and premature babies, circumcision and umbilical cord care, organization and stocking of the baby’s nursery, gentle approaches to sleep conditioning, baby’s laundry, etc.
Not only are they able to provide expert care for your newborn, but they are also able to educate and empower you, as parents, so that you can grow in your confidence in this role and adapt to this new way of life!
What is a typical schedule for a Newborn Care Specialist?
There is a great deal of flexibility and variation here. An NCS will typically provide overnight care, and these shifts will be 8-12 hours in length, usually between the hours of 8pm and 8am. Overnight care is often requested for 5-7 nights a week, but some NCS’s may be open to lighter schedules as well. If your family was only searching for 2-3 nights a week, the NCS may also pick up a similar number of shifts with another family to fill in their schedule.
Some Newborn Care Specialists will be open to 24-hour care as well, in which case they would require 4-6 hours off in each 24-hour period. A family may even opt for round-the-clock care for the first portion of the contract and then move down to overnight shifts for the rest of the contract, depending on the flexibility of the NCS.
How long does an NCS contract usually last?
NCS contract lengths can vary greatly, but they are often between 6 weeks and 6 months in length. Contracts will usually have the end-goal of your baby successfully sleeping through the night.
What can we expect in terms of cost for an NCS?
An NCS will generally earn $35-50+/hour, depending on your location, expectations, training level/experience of the NCS, and other factors. They often ask for a retainer upon signing, which is an advance on wage that is usually a minimum of 4 weeks’ pay but may be 25-50% of the total contract [this is issued by the NCS, not by our agency]. Many NCS’s work as W-2 employees and should therefore be hired as domestic employees of your household. This tends to be the most comfortable route for families, especially with many states having strict laws surrounding the classification of independent contractors.
In some cases, the NCS may run their business as an LLC and is then hired as a contractor (1099). At Nanny Harmony, we set you up for success with payroll from day one through our wonderful contacts at HomePay or HomeWork Solutions. And to learn more about our agency services and fees, click here.
What sort of accommodations should we provide for our NCS?
This will partly be dependent upon the schedule of your NCS. In the case of 24-hour care, your family will be required to provide a private living space and bathroom for your NCS to rest, unwind, and have personal care time during their off hours each day. Daily food and/or stipends for food will also be necessary. In the case of overnight care, you still may opt to offer your NCS a private room and bathroom, but it is also very common for the NCS to stay in the baby’s nursery on a cot or bed. With overnight care, food is not required, but any drinks or snacks are certainly appreciated!
How would overnight feedings work?
If you are nursing, the Newborn Care Specialist will bring your baby to you to feed when they wake in the night. They will also take care of transferring your little one back to the nursery and back to sleep following any feedings. If you plan to pump or use formula, the NCS will bottlefeed your baby during the night and take care of all the cleaning and sterilizing of bottles and pump parts throughout the night as well. Any desired feeding schedules will be discussed and planned ahead of time.
What if this isn’t our first child?
That’s A-OKAY! This will still be a huge period of transition for your family, and you deserve to feel supported through that. With a Newborn Care Specialist tending to the needs of your newborn, this can allow for more quality time with your other child(ren) and give you the tools to help your whole family adapt to this new life change. The NCS can also offer their expertise surrounding information, techniques, and products that you might not have known about the first time around! And it mustn’t be forgotten that an NCS will allow you to catch up on much-needed sleep, which will benefit the whole family and facilitate necessary recovery.
How does a Newborn Care Specialist compare to a postpartum doula, night nanny, or night nurse/baby nurse?
We have a separate blog post devoted to answering this question that you can find here. To put it simply, while a Newborn Care Specialist focuses most of their care on the infant, a postpartum doula often takes on a more holistic role, providing support for the infant but also for the whole family unit, especially the birthing parent. Night nannies, unlike NCS’s and postpartum doulas, are not typically certified in their training and care and tend to work under the direct guidance of the parents. And terms like “night nurse” and “baby nurse” are considered outdated and not legal to use unless the individual is an actual nurse (RN, LPN, LVN).
When should we begin the process of hiring a Newborn Care Specialist?
We recommend initiating your search for a Newborn Care Specialist as early as possible, since some stellar NCS candidates will be booked 3-6 months in advance. Generally 3-4 months before your due date will be a sufficient timeframe to source your family’s best-fit NCS, but the more notice, the better.
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There’s a lot to keep in mind when approaching a newborn care search, and our goal at Nanny Harmony is to take the stress, anxiety, fear, and guesswork out of this process for you. With a little one on the way, you already have SO much on your plate, so we would love nothing more than to put your mind at ease and guide you in your search. If you’re interested in initiating that process today, please take a moment to fill out our Family Application, and then we will be in touch to schedule a video consultation so that we can learn more about your family and familiarize you with everything we offer!
Here for you, ready to support, and cheering you on through it all!
