Motherhood is a special journey, one that most women plan in advance and one that imbues their life with a new set of emotions and expectations. Cutting across geographical boundaries and linguistic divisions, motherhood is an emotion that has a universal appeal. And yet every mother is different and special in a different way. Every mother has their own unique set of needs and demands and that’s why professional maternity home care is most valuable in today’s world.
Apart from the constant love, support, and care of loved ones and the father of the child, most mothers require a sustained and daily dose of maternity care at home. This is especially true if the mother is an expat and living away from her immediate family in Dubai or UAE. Holistic maternal care at home in addition to booking a qualified obstetrician and gynaecologist is paramount.
Hence, a qualified midwife comes into the picture when it comes to pregnancy care at home.
An expecting mother goes through a series of physical and psychological changes including changes in appearance and body weight as well as a sudden increase in mood swings, sudden cravings, and sudden bouts of depression. All the hardships, the sleepless nights, the bouts of anxiety, the change in eating habits as well as the jittery nervousness that pregnant women have to often overcome and can be overwhelming under the lack of proper guidance. To be able to have someone qualified in the vicinity who is engaged in giving her proper care, attention, and counselling is a boon for pregnant women staying away from family or dealing with frequently travelling family members.
Similarly, after delivery most mothers require well-balanced, holistic newborn and postnatal care at home as the process of real motherhood only begins after being discharged from the hospital.
Here’s a list of maternity care and newborn care services that a good, certified midwife in Dubai must be able to provide:
- Regular supervision of the nutrition and diet of the expecting mother and monitoring of bodily changes, day-to-day routine, and sleep cycle.
- Assisting with moving around, day-to-day activities, physical exercise in consultation with the appointed doctor, and assisting with meals and daily hygiene and cleanliness at home.
- Guiding through the process of prenatal pain, depression, nausea, sleeplessness, and assisting with the periodic schedule of medical check-ups and routine tests.
- Maintaining healthy and positive communication with the expecting mother and giving valuable guidance.
- Guiding the family through the process of preserving the umbilical cord once the baby is born.
- Taking care of the baby’s hygiene and sterilization of feeding bottles.
- Taking care of post-circumcision as part of home maternity care service.
- Assisting with breastfeeding and monitoring the breastfeeding cycle is a vital part of home nursing care for mothers. Breastfeeding introduces a new set of emotions for the mother and facilitates a special bond between the mother and the child. A well-qualified maternity nurse should be able to make this process easy and smooth for the mother and impart accurate knowledge regarding the same.
- Assisting with breast care of the breastfeeding mother.
- Assisting the mother with measuring and formula feeding the baby the right amount and proportion.
- Maintaining a proper diet chart of the baby once the baby starts consuming cooked food.
- Maintaining a proper diet chart of the mother as the mother must get all the proper nutrients for a speedy recovery. A healthy mother will ensure a healthy child.
- Assisting the mother in understanding and establishing the sleep cycle of the newborn such that she can develop her own sleep cycle around that and both get proper rest.
- Assisting with maintaining proper postnatal cleanliness and dressing of the wound.
- Recording the growth of the baby and monitoring the same.
- Changing soiled nappies and keeping nappies clean.
- Washing the baby’s clothes and giving the baby a bath is also part of a midwife’s role.
- Assisting with 24/7 newborn care so that the new mother can get optimal rest to recover fully and resume daily chores. In fact, this 24/7 newborn care is the most important duty of a maternity nurse.
- Encouraging and motivating the mother post childbirth in order to deal with postnatal depression, body weight perception issues, and resuming a normal relationship with the spouse is also part of a well-trained midwife.
And at Nightingale Dubai, we provide professionally certified maternity nurses and midwives who are equipped to deal with the concerns and challenges of modern-day pregnancy and postnatal care. They are not only medically trained to deal with day-to-day monitoring of baby growth and sleep cycle but are also psychologically equipped to guide a new mother through the process of recovering post childbirth.