When I moved to Los Angeles from Seattle, I was eight months pregnant, and had no friends nor acquaintances to lean on. My husband travels often due to his business, thus I was worried that I would have no reliable help to assist me with my newborn.
Since I didn’t know where to start with my search for a baby nurse in Los Angeles, I asked my new neighbor, who had a small child, for advice. She told me that the safest way would be through my OBG doctor, or through a reputable local agency, but she had not used any herself.
My doctor knew of no available baby nurses, since they’re booked long in advance, therefore, I resorted to the internet, although with a great deal of concern. I was overwhelmed by the variety of websites specializing in this field of expertise. There were some large national companies, but I noticed that they accepted resumes from absolutely anyone, no questions asked, which made me extremely leery of them since I would have to do all the screening, checking, and interviewing by myself, amongst hundreds of candidates. It made no sense.
I decided to focus on local agencies, but there were so many! What to do? I went into the websites of ten of them, and looked carefully into their time length in business, testimonials, type of clientele, fees and guarantees, etc. Finally I was able to narrow it down to three, but when I dug deeper, I noticed that two of them had very short guarantee periods, and their fees were insane. But the third one had everything I was looking for, plus they performed personal interviews, references checking, criminal background investigations, DMV reports, and all done prior to any formal placement. I certainly called them to inquire for baby nurses availability, given the short time left before birth, and, luckily, they found three newborn experts in their database who were not booked yet for my time period.
I interviewed all of them in the privacy of my own home, and made the decision on a lovely nurse by the name Laureen, who was not only perfect for the baby, but also as a pre-natal doula, lactancy adviser, and post-natal mom’s tutor. I had her for eight wonderful weeks, and she left me with all the knowledge I needed to feel confident in my own ability to be the mom of a newborn, plus she helped choose a great nanny from the same agency, to help me in my long child-rearing future.
Thank you, Sandra Taylor Agency.
