The Role of a Postnatal and Infant Care Practitioner?
As a Little Ones London maternity trainer, I thought it relevant to make my first blog about the role of a postnatal and infant care practitioner. I want to explain the main responsibilities and how you can move into this field of work
Firstly, why didn’t we just call the course ‘Maternity Nurse Training’?
It’s simple really.... The term ‘maternity nurse’ is so misleading to parents and professionals alike.
Maternity refers to the period of pregnancy and just after childbirth. As a maternity nurse your main responsibilities will be for the newborn baby and mother post birth, not during the pregnancy. It is the same with the term 'nurse'. A nurse refers to a medically qualified and trained professional. I believe this term is confusing to use in reference to the work a ‘maternity nurse’ actually does.
The term ‘postnatal and infant care practitioner’ is a more fitting title for this role.
So what does a Postnatal and Infant Care Practitioner do?
Firstly, you will care for a newborn baby.
This includes:
You will also need to help the family. This could be by:
Other duties will include:
A postnatal and infant care practitioner will be welcomed into a family’s home. Their typical hours will be 24 hours per day over 5-6 days per week on a live-in basis (there are options for daily or night nannying as well). Family’s employ a maternity nurse to assist them with the care of their newborn baby and to help implement a feeding and sleep schedule as well as looking out for the well-being of the postnatal mother. If you are required to do the nights, then you will need to wake with the baby and prepare feeds. The mother will also be looking to you for breastfeeding support and information on anything that may crop up.
With the Postnatal and Infant Care course, we aim to teach you everything to prepare you to not only work with a newborn, but to also pass this information on to new parents. We want our postnatal practitioners to be teachers who can advise and guide new parents through those first few months with their baby and show them how to respond to their baby’s needs. This is an important part of the Little Ones PAICE course.
If you are interested in finding out more about out level 3 OCN London accredited course, please contact our course coordinator Lora on 0207 1830309. Upcoming course dates:
All courses run from 9:30am - 6pm on a Saturday and Sunday (2 days) at the Little Ones London offices at 3 Hanson St, Fitzrovia, W1W 6TB. £340 for the LOUK LTD Certification £395 for the OCN London accreditation
Adeline Tye – Little Ones Maternity Trainer
