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Night Care for Babies in Connecticut

While bringing a newborn home is exciting and joyful, you may be reading this for the other part that new moms and dads are often not prepared for – how often a newborn awakens and needs to be tended to at night.  

For many parents, this is one of the hardest challenges of having a new baby. Lack of sleep makes everything seem harder and sometimes overwhelming.

Good news!  There are reliable, trustworthy and experienced persons available especially for the night care of babies. While it may seem hard to give over the care of your precious baby to a non-family caretaker, it is important to remember that for centuries, families had a lot more familial support when a new baby arrived.  Families today often do not have the same support.

The advent of professional night care doulas has occurred because there is still a need to get some support and relief for even a night or two for new parents.

Sleep Easier With An Experienced Doula

A night care doula or overnight doula will care for your baby as you outline.  She will take notes about your baby so you will know what the baby is doing at night.  What time did he wake? How much was she fed? What kind of diapers did he have? How long did she take to burp and settle?  

Having the assurance that an experienced, nurturing person is caring for your baby the way you outline will allow you to get some sleep.

If a new mom is nursing, the doula can bring the baby to her and change and settle the baby for her which will allow her less “up” time and more sleep time.  Once a breastfeeding mom is pumping, she can pump and leave a bottle of milk outside her door for the feedings during the night. Pumping takes 10 minutes of awake time, breastfeeding takes 30 – 45 minutes.

For baby who is formula fed, the doula will care for him/her exclusively through the night.

Give Dad A Rest Too

Night care benefits Dad, as well, as fathers get exhausted, too.  Many Dads are extra busy during the day attending to older children, household chores like errands, cooking and laundry.  Often, he is managing visitors and the needs of his wife as well during the day.

Many men have jobs that don’t allow for even a week off from work.  It is very hard to give your job your best when you’ve been up most of the night trying to help an exhausted wife.

Having a professional night care doula will certainly help Dad provide the help his wife needs while still allowing him to function during the day.

Find The Right Doula For You

MothersCare does the work of screening a night care doula for you.  We only hire persons we would trust with our own families. We hire experienced, warm, nurturing women who love being moms themselves and enjoy supporting other mothers with new babies.  

You can meet your night care person in advance to be sure you are comfortable with her. You can have as many or as few nights that you feel you need to start with. If the baby has already arrived, you can try one night and see how it works for you.  

You can add on as you see how you and your spouse are doing. Many families wean off having night support as the baby starts to sleep better.

Doula vs. Baby Nurse

MothersCare has been supporting postpartum families for over 25 years.  We are not a baby nurse service. A baby nurse is typically live in and often does not have training in breastfeeding.  Night care Doulas do not live-in. A night doula focuses on the mom by supporting what she needs. Does she want the doula to feed and care for the baby exclusively? Does she need the doula to help with breastfeeding? The doula will provide drinks and snacks for mom as well.

As the baby gets older, the doula will help with getting the baby to do longer stretches of sleep and she may make some recommendations about the baby to mom and dad. We have a minimum of 8 hrs. at night and no minimum number of days or nights needed to contract a night care doula.

Call us at 203-375-5719 or email us at [email protected] to learn about the night support we can provide.

About Susan Shepard

I am the owner/partner of MothersCare Doula Services in CT. I am a Postpartum doula and my business partner, Sheila Marley is a Labor doula. MothersCare places both Labor and Postpartum doulas with CT Families. I am the mom of five beautiful children, one set of twins. The best quote for me as a young mother and the catalyst for MothersCare is “It’s not weakness to know you need help, it’s wisdom.”

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