Maternity Nurse

A maternity nurse is a professional, usually a nurse who will be the first professional carer, other than the parents, when a child is born.

A maternity nurse is on duty 24 hours a day six or seven days a week.

They care for newborn babies and are considered an invaluable help to new parents. They are skilled and experienced in newborn care and in supporting, teaching and empowering new parents. Additionally, they provide the opportunity for the new parents to rest and recover after birth.

Depending on location a maternity nurse may be a nurse that helps with the obstetrics care when giving birth or it may be where you are employed as a help for a family with their newborn at home.

Maternity nurses may also referred to often as post-natal carers or newborn specialists.

A maternity nurse’s role is to help new parents, particularly new mothers in all aspects of caring for the newborn.

It includes tips on successful breast feeding to establishing a routine to bathing to helping mum get back on her feet after giving birth and provide support and guidance to build confidence in the new parents.

Maternity nurses generally sleep with their charges (the baby) and either bring baby to mum for breast feeding during the night or bottle feed the babies without waking the mum so that the mother has a chance to recover from the birth.

The maternity nurse is there to provide the mother with a sense of security during those physically and mentally exhausting first few weeks after childbirth.

For those mothers who don’t have family support close at hand or who have had twins or a cesarean it can be an invaluable help. A comforting presence and a willing pair of hands at 3 am can make an enormous difference.

There is no single qualification that is accepted as a maternity nurse.

Having said that, to become a maternity nurse you are required to have a qualification (most have a Nursing qualification) and (preferably) experience with newborns.

Each position varies and a family may employ a maternity nurse that has early years qualifications with specific newborn experience, however typically a maternity nurse will be just as the title implies, a nurse (normally a paediatric nurse) or midwife.

As with any role that involves caring for a child/newborn it will be dictated by the individual family situation and the position itself, however there is a set of broad specific tasks that a maternity nurse is generally employed to do.

These include:

• Health and care of newborns.
• Colic and reflux assistance.
• Education on safety and prevention such as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
• Sleep and the newborn.
• Establishing routines.
• Health and care of post-natal mothers.
• Breastfeeding guidance and support.
• Day-to-day tasks such as laundry, the baby’s room, etc.
• Supervision of the baby.
• Overall support, guidance and education for the new parents.

The wage depends on the location, number of children (including if there are multiples such as triplets, twins), experience, qualification and so on as well as what the position actually entails. All these factors will influence and alter the wage.

We are able to give you a guide as an example.

A maternity nurse in Australia can expect around:

24 hour care with a single baby: $230- $270/day or pay ranging from $1200-2000+ per week in Australia.

A maternity nurse in the UK can expect around:

24 hour care with a single baby: £180-£280 (£950-£1900 per week)
24 hour care with multiple births: £230-£380 (£1000 – £2100+ per week).

Maternity nurses are generally self employed, which means you are responsible for your tax (and insurance).

As it is a short term contract you also generally do not have the same rights as you would as an employee i.e. sick pay, holiday pay, etc unless it is stipulated in your contract or agreed upon before commencement of the position.

• It seems ridiculously obvious, but you must love, be experienced and comfortable with newborn babies. They have their fair share of tribulations and are extremely demanding.
• You need to have the patience to mother the exhausted and daunted mother who may feel exasperated at the screaming and permanently hungry angel she has just spent hours painfully bringing into the world. You will need to be able to deal with the range of emotions that the mother experiences and may inflict upon you.
• It can be an unsettling job for your routine as you are on call with family 24 hour/day, in their house and it can be for anything up to three months. Every time your job changes so does your home and if this would unnerve you then this is probably not for you. Others may find this exciting and challenging.
• Although you are there for 24 hours a day, it does not mean that you are awake and working every second of every day. Often you are given 2-3 hours break per 24 hour period to rest. It does, however, mean that you are pretty much on call for that time. It can be laborious and although it’s only for a limited amount of time, does require substantial stamina. It means you do not have an everyday life for that period but also means you can chose the positions that fit into your life.
• The mothers who employ maternity nurses either do so because they really need help or often because they are first time mothers who need your guidance and reassurance. It can be a very rewarding position but can also be draining and exhausting.
• It requires a large degree of sensitivity as you need to respect their privacy and the emotions they will be experiencing at this time.