Overnight Newborn Care

We don’t require a minimum number of days to book care — you can request a nanny as often or as occasionally as you need. Each booking does, however, have a 4-hour minimum to ensure your nanny is compensated fairly for her time and travel. This flexibility allows families to enjoy trusted, professional care without any ongoing commitment.

We work efficiently to match families with the right caregiver, and find that prompt responses to scheduling calls and interviews allows the nanny search to progress smoothly.

A Newborn Care Specialist is an individual trained and skilled in newborn care. They provide unique expertise in all aspects of newborn care, parental education and support. Their job is to help nurture and care for newborns while providing guidance and education for the parents.

Not all of our caregivers have completed a formal NCS training, but every nanny we place has extensive experience caring for children and newborns. Some have completed specialized trainings like NCS or postpartum doula programs, while others have built their expertise through hands-on experience and have successfully passed our newborn care assessment. We prioritize skill, instinct, and a deep understanding of infant care in every placement.

The primary role of a Newborn Care Specialist is to provide assistance and education after the parents bring the baby home from the hospital. Many times this help will include scheduling, feeding, sleep training, help with breastfeeding and more.

Newborn Care Specialists will generally work night shifts managing the baby’s care while the parents sleep restfully. When the baby wakes up, the NCS feeds by bottle or brings the baby to the mom for nursing.

During the daytime a Newborn Care Specialist will provide similar care and also strive to create a nurturing and stimulating environment for the baby during waking hours. Both day and night NCS document the baby’s patterns and keep a log of sleeping, feeding and changing times to assist in transitioning the baby to a regular schedule. My information on daytime NCS care can be found under Consultations.

Newborn Care Specialists are generally not responsible for household duties unrelated to the new baby or for the care of other children in the household.

We recommend submitting your request as early as possible to ensure full coverage for your preferred schedule.

Overnight newborn caregivers will typically perform the following duties:

• Educate and support parents.

• Create a smooth transition for family during the newborn stage.

• Troubleshoot potential issues of concern with the newborn and offer professional options to resolve them.

• Maintain a thorough log of infant feeding and sleep patterns.

• Assist the family with any feeding issues they may have, including formula feeding and the facilitation of breastfeeding and be knowledgeable in answering feeding related questions.

• Soothes babies using skills and proven techniques that help calm newborns.

• To provide care for the newborn and perform some or all of the following tasks:

• Diapering

• Changing

• Bathing

• Circumcision Care

• Bottle Preparation (Breastmilk & Formula)

• Bottle Cleaning

• Organization & Maintenance of Nursery

• Create a regular feeding schedule

• Assist in establishing healthy sleep habits

• Maintain a thorough log of eating, sleeping and behavioral patterns

• Take over complete care of newborn at night to provide parents time to sleep

An overnight newborn care schedule typically consists of 8-10 hour shifts, but might be 12 or 24 hours long when the baby has just arrived or when sleep training begins.

Our base schedule is an 8 hour night from 10pm-6am, but most families opt to add time to the beginning and/or end of the shift.

Most clients will start by booking between 6-12 weeks.

While it might seem like all of these titles are interchangeable and mean the same thing, there are actually some differences in the tasks performed, trainings and certifications received and experience. I will explain some of these differences below:

Night Nurse/Baby Nurse

A night nurse is someone who is a registered nurse that works in home with babies that have medical complications and require someone trained in medical practices. It is necessary to check credentials and make sure that the night nurse you are hiring is actually a trained and registered nurse. The term night nurse used to mean the same as night nanny, but it is outdated and now only represents someone who has the credentials to be a registered nurse.

A night nurse/baby nurse would typically only offer overnight care for medically fragile babies 0-12 months, but might offer care to older children as well.

Night Nanny

A night nanny is someone that has childcare experience but has not gone through any formal training. Usually a night nanny will receive guidance and supervision from the parents and will rely on them to tell her what to do and when to do it.

A night nanny typically offers overnight care for newborns and infants, but might offer care for older children if needed.

Postpartum Doula

A postpartum doula has gone through a specialized training that focuses on overall support of the family after birth. Most postpartum doulas are trained on how to care for the postpartum mother in addition to the newborn. Doulas have been trained on the care of a newborn, but their newborn care training will not be as extensive as an NCS training.

A postpartum doula might offer both day time and night time support from 0-3 months.

Newborn Care Specialist

An NCS is someone who has gone through formal training to become a newborn care specialist. Unlike a night nanny, they usually give guidance and wisdom to the parents. An NCS has more experience working with newborns and can teach the parents about newborn care, hygiene, safety, sleep, and more. An NCS is your personal go-to expert on infants.

An NCS typically offers overnight care for newborns ages 0-3 months.

What is an Overnight Newborn Caregiver?

At Elite Nannies on Demand, we found that there are highly experienced and qualified caregivers under each of these job descriptions. Because our newborn caregivers come from a variety of backgrounds with their experience and trainings, we call our caregivers overnight newborn caregivers since they don’t all fit under 1 type of caregiver.

ENOD is the optimal choice for first time parents or parents who want a caregiver that can take charge and doesn’t need specific instructions on what to do each night.