How To Get The Most From Your Confinement Nanny

If you are going to pay a confinement nanny to come into your home and help take care of your newborn baby, you must take some precautions to make sure you get the most benefit for the investment. You may come to love your nanny as if she is a natural part of your family, but it is still a financial deal. You deserve to get the most from the deal, so consider a few related tips.

Don’t Forget Yourself
A confinement nanny is there to help take care of you, not just your baby. In fact, many believe that the confinement nanny should primarily care for the new mother so she remains healthy enough to take care of her baby on her own when the confinement period is over. This means you should consider your needs from the nanny, rather than just listing out the duties that you would like the nanny to take on for your newborn baby. For example, you will of course have the nanny help you with night time sessions getting the baby back to sleep, but you may need some help getting sleep as well. The nanny may therefore agree to take the baby for you while you take naps as needed. You will naturally contract for the confinement nanny to help you feed the baby properly, but you should ask her to also prepare some healthy meals for you. You will not be able to cook all of your meals on your own, at least right from the beginning.

Be Very Clear
When setting down with a confinement nanny to discuss the position, be very clear with the duties you would like her to take on. It is best to do this through a confinement nanny service, since they will have standard contracts and duty lists which can serve as a starting point for your discussions. Most agencies will allow you to make some changes or add to the list of duties for additional cost, but it helps to have that initial list of duties and price point to start from.

Don’t be Shy
Do not feel shy asking for everything that you need from your confinement nanny. Most agencies are ready and willing to meet all of your needs, but you may have to pay a bit more if it means more work than usual for the confinement nanny. If you are not very honest and upfront with your needs, then the contract you create will not be sufficient for your needs. This will leave you dissatisfied in the end.

Never Assume
If you aren’t sure about something, do not hesitate to ask. If you assume a service is not available, you will pass up getting something from your nanny that could have been provided. If you assume that your nanny will do something without asking, you may be very disappointed that the service is not included in your contract. Always ask. Never assume.

Bring Respect to the Table
Finally, if you respect your nanny and treat her like a part of the family, she will be more willing to do extra things to care for you and the baby. Make her feel welcomed and appreciated and you are guaranteed to get better care from her. That means your baby gets better care as well.

Confinement Nanny Duties: How Far Should It Go?
There is some kind of controversy over what recent times confinement nannies should be expected to perform when they have been hired to work for a new mom. It is a given that a confinement nanny will help with all fields of care for the baby, but the question is how far they should go to help the new mother? Should confinement nanny be expected to do any or all of the following things?
-Cook meals for the entire family
-Wash laundry for the entire family
-Scrub floors
-Scrub bathrooms and the kitchen
-Clean up after meals and wash dishes
-Tend to older children in the family
-Pick up after the husband
-Serve guests that come into the home
For most of these items, a confinement nanny today would say absolutely no. The distinction needs to be made between a made or general hired help for the home and a confinement nanny. It’s like hiring a nanny to help take care of older children. They are there for childcare, not to perform housework or to service the mother so she doesn’t have to get up. There are different types of hired help and a nanny hired specifically for the confinement period is different from all other types of help.

This nanny is in charge of helping to care for the newborn, but not necessarily other children in the home. They are in charge of making sure the mother is comfortable, gets adequate amounts of rests, and is healing as she should. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the nanny should cook meals for the entire family and do everyone’s laundry. The job of a confinement nanny should not mirror that of a maid hired to keep the house clean. There has to be a line where the duties of the confinement nanny are respected and lines are not crossed.

Communication is Key
Some confinement nannies will step up and do these other household tasks, but they will usually want to be compensated for the extra effort. Others will only do a specific list of tasks that are commonly expected of a confinement nanny today. It doesn’t matter what nannies may have done in the past. Things are a bit different today and communication right from the start is essential. Before you contact an agency to hire a nanny, you should have a good idea of how much help will be needed, how long the services will be needed, and specifically what duties need to be covered. You can then communicate your needs clearly to a nanny service to see if they have someone who can accommodate all of those needs. If they don’t, you will either have to use another service or hire more than one person to make sure everything is covered.

For instance, you may need to hire a confinement nanny to care for yourself and the new baby while hiring a part time nanny to care for other children in the home until you are on your feet enough to do that care for yourself. You may need a confinement nanny and a part time maid who comes in for the heavier scrubbing and picking up. You have to be very clear about what you expect from your confinement nanny. She can then be very clear on how much of that expectation she is willing and able to live up to.