Is a Baby Nurse Worth the Cost to Help Those First Days Home?

I had a conversation with someone the other day about whether we were happy with using a baby nurse.

When we first returned home from the hospital, we used a baby nurse for the next 10 days. They are expensive — most cost over $200 per day … but, we were fortunate to get it as a gift from our family (something expecting parents might want to ask for). The advantages of having one significantly outweighed the disadvantages for us.

Some benefits of having a baby nurse:

• Getting us on a schedule for feeding, napping, bath, and bed time – #1 benefit
• Demonstrating different techniques for holding, swaddling, and comforting
• Great sounding board for the trillion questions you have during this steep learning curve
• They are not your family — gives you some breathing room
• Enables you take some naps during the day and sleep late in the morning in the middle of a sleep deprived and stressful time
• Use them as a babysitter at night if you want to break away for a quiet dinner or catch a flick

The downside:

• Very costly (daily cost + food expenses)
• You are not alone & it gets crowded (apartments in NYC are small enough…even smaller with another adult staying over)
• You may become too reliant on baby nurse which makes it harder when they leave

Our baby nurse was amazing – She was professional, knowledgeable, and was very loving to our son. It was tight in the apartment at times, especially when we had visitors. You have an additional stranger sleeping over, eating with you at dinner and breakfast, and watching TV. It was a strange experience! As first time parents, I would recommend looking into hiring a baby nurse or at least having a family member on hand for the first few weeks.

Curious to hear some stories on how you got through the first two weeks …

Photo by wang dongxu on Unsplash