Author: Nightingale

Everything You Need to Know About Prenatal, Pregnancy Care and Post-Pregnancy Care as a New Mother.

Post author By Nightingale
Post date August 21, 2019
No Comments on Everything You Need to Know About Prenatal, Pregnancy Care and Post-Pregnancy Care as a New Mother.

Are you planning to step into the exciting phase of motherhood? It can be the most blissful moment in your life to give birth to a baby but at the same time, it can be fraught with challenges. Hence, it is advisable that you are equipped with the right knowledge about pregnancy care beginning from the prenatal stage to post-pregnancy care for bringing up a healthy child in the most delicate phase of his/ her life.

Prenatal Care for new mothers

Nutrition and healthy habits are indispensable for would-be mothers. Inculcate healthy habits in you from maintaining sound and routinely sleep patterns to avoid bad lifestyle habits such as smoking. Give special attention to diet and nutrition during planning pregnancy or just after entering the phase of pregnancy. You should include in your diet a minimum intake of 0.4 mg of Folic Acid every day. Folic Acid is vitamin B9 and is available in plenty in dark green vegetables such as spinach, broccoli and legumes. Also, avoid any recreational drugs or alcohol during your pregnancy. It is advisable to only go for doctor-prescribed drugs and not any over the counter medicines during the delicate phase of your pregnancy.

Your prenatal visits to your doctor or pregnancy provider are divided into trimesters depending on the month you are down in your pregnancy. Generally, it’s divided as first-trimester care, second-trimester care and third-trimester care during your pregnancy. Depending on the trimester you are in your pregnancy, the doctor will advise you tests such as ultrasounds, fetal echocardiography, amniocentesis etc, to ascertain the development of the child in your womb, check for genetic issues, check the baby’s heart, blood type testing, sexually transmitted diseases and others. Depending on your family history you may also screen the child for genetic problems.

Pregnancy Care

Every pregnancy varies from person to person. For some, it could be a near to normal experience of being able to carry on with their daily work schedule and others may develop some kind of complications. However, developing complications does not in any way suggest that you are not going to have a healthy baby. So, you should never worry about such issues and rather focus on getting the right diagnosis and best of care from your care provider or in some cases, get care from a home nurse. Common pregnancy problems include diabetes, high blood pressure, growth issues with the baby, early labour, vaginal bleeding etc. In such cases try to take special care of the baby with routine monitoring of your health condition. Would-be mothers with health complications are advised bed rest even before their term and take services of a professional home care nurse.

Labor Pain and Delivery

Labour pain is painful but it can be managed by having frequent consultations with your doctor or a nurse to attend to you can be handy in mentally counselling you about it. Especially for first-time mothers. Not just would be mothers but other family members and your spouse attending to you should have some knowledge about this condition or physiological state of yours for not to panic and be your support during the need of the hour. You should consult your doctor whether to go for the epidural block to manage the labour pain better? You should know about medical terms and procedures like episiotomy. What is the procedure of C section and how you should prepare for it mentally? Your home nurse or maternity nurse can assist you with first-hand knowledge about your pregnancy-related queries and for details on the matter, you can always approach your gynaecologist.

After Delivery Care

The first few weeks after delivering a child you need to take complete rest and take care of yourself. The degree of care required will depend on the procedure of your delivery. Mothers who have gone for C section delivery may require the assistance of a maternity nurse for wound dressing to taking care of daily chores. New mothers can learn how to properly breastfeed a baby from a maternity nurse. Breastfeeding is advisable to every mother as that helps her reduce the extra body weight gained during her pregnancy. There can be a lot to learn in breastfeeding your baby. From learning the right positioning of breastfeeding a baby to take care of your breasts to the timing of breastfeeding.

You may need to call your provider for any kind of health complications that you may develop in the weeks right after delivering your baby.

Luckily today there are no dearths of pregnancy care agencies in a city like Dubai, who can always provide you with a competent maternity nurse to take care of you during the prenatal to a few weeks after delivering your baby and make the entire process smooth for you and your family. All you need to exercise is applying caution while selecting a home healthcare agency.

Tags post-pregnancy, pregnancy, prenatal

Babysitting

How to find the right babysitter for your kid in dubai?

Post author By Nightingale
Post date August 12, 2019
No Comments on How to find the right babysitter for your kid in dubai?

Are you a working couple and breaking a sweat over finding the right babysitter for your kid? We understand it can be a stressful experience to find a babysitter who fits your requirement and get someone trustworthy to whom you can handover your baby without having to worry. In a big metro like Dubai, several professional organisations have come up to provide you with a babysitter or nanny for babysitting at home. You may approach them for in-home daycare babysitters but what is invaluable is how you choose a babysitter through the process of an interview. Here are some tips, questions that you must ask a babysitter before deciding to employ her. We are sure the below set of advice will be highly helpful for you to find the right nanny/babysitter for your kid.

Hygiene is the key to babysitting

Health and hygiene are the most important criteria for infant care. Thoroughly check with your babysitter of what kind of practices she would undertake to maintain the highest degree of hygiene for your kid. Ask her questions about her clean up process, bathing, poop clean up training etc.

Is she the boss without being bossy?

Making kids listen to a babysitter could be a big challenge. She can’t be bossy yet be able to handle your kid. Ask her questions about how she would prefer to connect to a baby. What is her technique of giving and garnering the attention of your baby? Ask her to do a role-play during the interview. Where you can pretend to be a kid and let her ask you a few questions and see if that will be able to arouse the interest of your kid to listen to her.

Has your babysitter done a course on child personality development?

Most in-home babysitters today have done training on children psychology, personality and brain development before applying for a babysitter job through an agency. Still, it is imperative for you to check her certificates about the training and also ask questions to find out if she understands the different stages of child development? A pre-school going kid will have a set of different requirements from a toddler. In children at every age the behaviour changes and at a rapid pace. So, your babysitter must be well versed with the behaviour management tips. As per a few ground rules of child behaviour management that anyone babysitting at home should not use any cuss words, or resort to any kind of physical violence to make the child behave. You should discuss these issues before employing a babysitter. Also, do ask her about the different types of games that she encourages a child to play and that helps in his learning and brain development.

What kind of babysitting is required in case of sibling sitting?

In case you require babysitting for siblings, ensure that your babysitter is aware of the following thumb rules. Your babysitter should keep a close watch over the siblings but at the same time be not intrusive enough not to provide any space to them for them to do their stuff. She should always encourage collaborative activities amid siblings for them to spend quality time with each other.
She should try to instil in the elder sibling that he is the figure of authority in the absence of the parents and should drive a sense of responsibility in him about the younger sibling.

How is a babysitter communicating with the parents?

An ideal babysitter is the one who wears two hats. While she should be able to easily break the ice with your kid, be it by drawing funny faces with crayon for your kid to make him laugh or wearing costumes to entertain him and at the same time she should be responsible and considerate as per the expectations of parents. So, you should look out for these qualities in your babysitter.

The Next Step – A Session with your Child

With some background to the kind of questions to a babysitter and expectations from her, now you have to shortlist a few candidates for the babysitting job of your child. Do remember, try to pay a decent wage to a babysitter and prefer not to haggle over wages as consider this as a very important job, something that can ascertain the future of your child. So, for deciding wages it’s always better to go with the fixed rate slabs of baby daycares of Dubai. You may also cross-check wages from your circle of family or friends who had employed a professionally trained babysitter. Now, that you have shortlisted a few babysitters, arrange a session with your child, to check how the two are gelling together. Is your babysitter being able to make an impact on your child right at the first meeting? Is he able to garner the attention of your child? Whatever you know on theory now see it work with your kid. We would recommend you to make your decision to employ a babysitter at this stage depending on your liking and fit for the role for your child and have a pleasant and enriching parenting experience.

Tags babysitter, dubai

Babysitting

What to consider while choosing a babysitter for your child.

Post author By Nightingale
Post date August 6, 2019
1 Comment on What to consider while choosing a babysitter for your child.

In-home, Babysitter is a much sought after service in a fast-paced city like Dubai. No wonder with both parents working these days and hardly any member or a relative at home to care for the baby, parents are turning towards a professional baby daycare in Dubai or hiring an in-home babysitter. Is that your story as well, particularly if you are a working parent and settled in Dubai? In order to meet such a growing demand, there are no dearth babysitters in your city of Dubai but what you need to ensure is that your babysitter is an expert at her job. We hope that the checklist provided by us will help you get the ideal babysitter for your child.

Before we get to the qualities of a babysitter and the services that can be expected out of her it is important to note that her roles and responsibilities vary depending upon the age of your baby. An infant would require more monitoring, assistance with daily chores, whereas a little more grown-up kid would require the babysitter to play and engage in various learning activities with the baby. So, depending on the age of your baby and his requirement, you should go for a babysitter.

QUALITIES OF A BABYSITTER

Health and Hygiene
Playfulness
Trust
Experience

Health and Hygiene

Health and hygiene should be the first in the priority list while choosing your babysitter. Ask your babysitter questions about her ideas and practices of maintaining the good health of the baby and a good environment at home. You should also ensure that your babysitter is on an off during the time she is herself suffering from ill-health. This way you can avoid any contagious infection being contracted to your child from the babysitter.

Playfulness

Your babysitter should be of charming nature and innovative to be able to invent new games for your baby and keep him/her engaged. Through these games, she should be able to make your baby learn a lot of new things. It will be great if she is a storyteller. She can impart knowledge by means of these stories. Ultimately, it’s the most productive time for your baby from the point of view of brain and personality development. Several in-home care agencies and baby daycare in Dubai appoints babysitters who are trained in personality development of children and serves as your child’s first and most important tutor.

Trust

Trust and responsibility are overriding factors for you being able to hand over your child in the hands of a babysitter. Your babysitter is the one who should be able to make parenting an exciting experience. If after a long day’s work sometimes you want to go outside your home to spend some personal time as a couple, the worry for your baby should not be at the back of your head. On the contrary, you should feel that your baby is in safe hands in your absence. Most in-home agencies these days ensure that a thorough background check is done of the babysitter employed at your home and is a certified professional. The in-home care agency also ensures that they are in contact with your babysitter in your absence. However and trust and responsibility are something beyond monitoring and your babysitter should be a responsible person even by nature. You should be able to find that out as you get to meet the babysitter a couple of times before you decide to appoint her. A babysitter agency today provides such trials for a better understanding of each other by both parties. Compatibility with you and even with your child are also other criteria that should be focused upon before you make a decision of appointing a babysitter. The relationship with a babysitter is often longstanding, something that is cherished even after your child has entered into a school going age.

Experience

What’s most valuable in a babysitter is the experience she possesses in handling kids. She has more knowledge than parents in dealing with challenges that a child may face and fairs like none during unwarranted situations. A babysitter provided by agencies are knowledgeable and also imparts it to the child how to save oneself during a natural disaster. She is the first tutor of the child who helps the child develop his personality, learn discipline and punctuality. The nanny or the babysitter should be able to wield her authority in the mildest manner for the child to develop healthy habits like brushing his own teeth, having his food on time etc. Some babysitters are even guides on matters of the diet of the child. In a loving and friendly manner, she should also inculcate values in the child to be able to socialise with others.

Be it an in-home care agency or a child daycare, ensure that you are aware of the roles and responsibilities, checks and balances before making your final decision to appoint a babysitter.

Tags babysitter, nurse, qualifications

Maternity Care Prenatal

What Kind of Pregnancy Care Packages are Offered By In-Home Healthcare Agencies?

Post author By Nightingale
Post date July 4, 2019
No Comments on What Kind of Pregnancy Care Packages are Offered By In-Home Healthcare Agencies?

Parenthood can be an exciting phase in your life. A professional pregnancy caregiver or a pregnancy caregiver agency can make your childbirth a safe, smooth and hassle-free experience. The best part is now the in-home pregnancy care agencies are providing packages that take care of the mother before, during and post childbirth.

Why do you need a professional nurse before the due date?

For pre-natal tests, nutrition and health habits, consultation on medicines you should appoint an in-home healthcare provider or may take services of a professional nurse during the third trimester of your pregnancy or during labour. The pregnancy care nurse will ensure that you go for timely tests that may include ultrasound, blood glucose, amniocentesis to check for genetic problems in the baby etc. She will collate the reports of this test and maintain a record in a methodical manner for any inputs required by the doctor during your delivery. The professional pregnancy care nurse will guide you on your daily diet intake with overseeing that your diet has, for example, a daily quota of 0.4 mg of folic acid in it. The caregiver will also ensure that the medicine you are consuming is safe to take while you are in the delicate stage of pregnancy. Health problems during pregnancy such as morning sickness, backaches, vaginal bleeding are common, your nurse will ensure that you do not panic due to such condition and help you manage the pain better.

Support during labour and delivery

Your in-home pregnancy care person is like your knowledge source and partner during the time when your delivery due date is approaching. She will educate you about what to expect during the time of delivery including mentally preparing you for a C-section delivery so that you never fluster during the time of actual delivery. To help you get through the difficult phase of labour she will keep handy a few sets of strategies to best manage the pain for you and be with you always to support you and keep a track of your condition. When the due date arrives she will even pack your bag with the necessities that you will require when admitted to the hospital.

Post pregnancy care

Post delivery you need to take care of your health in the first few weeks. The number of days you will spend in the hospital will depend upon the type of delivery you had. For general vaginal delivery you are likely to stay for1-2 days at the hospital and in cases of C-section deliveries you need to spend a couple of days more at the hospital depending on you do not have any other complications. The real challenges of post-natal pregnancy care begin once you arrive home.

First-time mothers will require guidance on breastfeeding from the pregnancy caregiver nurse. It may take up to a few weeks before you get comfortable with breastfeeding. The post-pregnancy care nurse would assist you with how to take care of your breasts, the correct posture of breastfeeding, etc. In case you are using a breastfeeding pump, she would also assist you with the correct use of the device. The nurse is going to be your guide through the day and helping you with timings of breastfeeding to a newborn.

For C-section cases, the pregnancy caregiver will assist the mother in the dressing of the wound, support with movement, daily activities like her bathing and also bathing and feeding of the bay. She will ensure that the best of hygiene is maintained in your household and no infection can spread. A professional and experienced post-pregnancy care nurse is great moral support for the mother in the post-natal phase. She helps the mother recuperate back to normal life in the fastest time and help her deal with a lot of post-pregnancy steps including how to lose body weight gained during pregnancy. She will always try to make sure that the mother takes less stress due to the psychological and physical changes induced during the entire phase. Vaginal bleeding, belly pain and other common conditions developed during the post pregnancy phase are adeptly handled by the caregiver who will monitor the medicines advised to the mother. The post-pregnancy caregiver also helps in the healthy physical and mental development of the child and by imparting knowledge to the mother about how to take care of her baby while doing daily activities of the baby including bathing, feeding, changing diapers, massaging, sleep patterns etc.

With more and more in-home healthcare agencies announcing a more comprehensive package for pregnancy providing assistance right from the pregnancy to prenatal to postnatal phases, it is advisable that you check if all these services are provided by the agency that you are hiring. Else if you are in the city of Dubai, you can always go for a trusted and reputable pregnancy and childcare agency like nightingale Dubai to make your motherhood, parenting a memorable experience.

Tags care, package, pregnancy

Home Care Night Nursing

Are You Looking for a Home Nurse? Here’s What You Need to Know Before Hiring One

Post author By Nightingale
Post date June 17, 2019
1 Comment on Are You Looking for a Home Nurse? Here’s What You Need to Know Before Hiring One

Home healthcare over the last decade has improved a lot. You can now provide care to your loved one suffering from ill-health, needs post-operative care, elderly, chronically ill, has cognitive problems or having any disabilities without having the patient travel to a nursing home. Trained in-home nurses provided by registered in-home care agencies in a city like Dubai brings medically professional home care for your patient without having you to sacrifice your time from your professional life for taking care of your ailing loved one at home. These home care nurses provided by home health care agencies are qualified medical professionals with training and education certifications required for a caregiver and with qualities to administer care related to health conditions such as diabetes, gastroenteritis related issues, colostomy, respiratory, post-operative care, cognitive impairments, locomotion impairments etc.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF IN-HOME CARE NURSES

Before choosing a nurse for you suffering loved one, the first thing that you need to ensure is to have a detailed discussion about the health condition of the patient with the home healthcare agency by producing all the investigation reports and doctor prescriptions to avail a home nurse specialising in care for a condition that your patient is suffering from.

On a general basis, in-home care nurses can be broadly divided into three categories.

I. ADL
II. IADL
III. Companionship

ADL ( Activities for Daily Living or Self Care)

If your patient requires something more than medical care like help, support and care related to daily activities such as bathing, mobility etc, then you should go for a nurse specialist in ADL care.

Basic ADL activities include:

Support with the feeding of the patient
Mobility of the patient that may include getting up from the chair or out of the bed. The nurse would assist the patient with the correct postures of movement etc.
Assistance with dressing and choosing the right fabric of the dress for better comfort.
Maintaining the highest standards of hygiene during this susceptible phase of the patient. Helping the patient to maintain toilet hygiene and avoid various infections such as a Urinary tract infection or maintain personal hygiene such as hair styling, brushing etc.
Assistance with daily activities such as bathing and shower.

IADL ( Instrumental Activities of Daily Living)

These mostly support activities instrumental to daily living and functioning.
Such activities include:

Maintenance of cleanliness in the room where the patient is living to create a dust-free environment with minimum germs inhabiting in the area. Maintaining strict discipline to ensure visitors family members frequenting the patient room follow certain do’s and don’t’s.
IADL home health care nurses prepare meals for the patient keeping in mind the diet of the patient at the same time including ingredients for a healthy diet of the patient and maintaining a routine and timing of meals for the patient. The home nurse may also go for shopping buying necessities and medicines for the patient with even responsibilities of managing the funds and expenses related to the patient. An IADL nurse may at the end of a week provide you with a summary of expenses that happened during the week.

Based on your requirement for the patient purely depending on medical monitoring, ADL or IADL choose your home caregiver after thorough consultation with your home care services agency.

Another category of home-care nurses provided by home care agencies is companionship based. Let’s know more about this category in details.

Companionship and positive mental health caregiver nurses

Companionship home care nurses ensure that they supply the positive spirit required by your patient to recover and get well. They also supply confidence to terminally ill patients such as the ones suffering from any kind of cancer to fight the disease with a positive spirit. Companionship also includes spending time with the patient, engage in positive conversations during hours when near and dear ones of the patient are out of the home due to work. Do keep in mind that these category of nurses are not necessarily only medical caregivers and their role goes beyond just providing assistance with activities to the patient. This category of nurses is also recommended for patient suffering from depression related to their disease or in requirement of any kind of psychological counselling.

We hope that this blog will now help you choose a home care nurse for your loved one more judiciously in a city like Dubai which provides home care services with registered ADL, IADL and companion nurses enrolled with them.

Tags home nurse, part time nurse

Elderly Care

Know what is covered under elderly care services by a professional home nurse.

Post author By Nightingale
Post date June 10, 2019
No Comments on Know what is covered under elderly care services by a professional home nurse.

Home care for the elderly is a much sought after service in a bustling city like Dubai. With a population comprising of expats and people from different parts of the world coming to Dubai for attaining their professional goals often are left with little time to spare at home and care for their families particularly elderly people like their parents by staying at home. Hence, most working people in Dubai are going for professional elderly home care services. Here’s what you need to know about these services and the roles and responsibilities elderly care agencies are ready to take up providing the best of care to your elderly parent.

Elderly care service agencies appoint nurses who are trained in old age care with the expertise to administer medicines, injections, therapies required by the elderly patient. These nurses are generally trained to handle health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, gastroenteritis related conditions, several kinds of postoperative care including joint replacement surgeries, cataract and other conditions that are common occurrences during old age.

Senior home assistance or senior home healthcare services broadly involves three categories of nurses or caregivers that you may require as per the health condition and necessity of your patient.

PRIMARY CAREGIVERS

Primary caregivers are home healthcare nurses for seniors who are administered to provide medical treatment to elderly who need care for health conditions discussed above. Their responsibilities include administering medicine to the patient as per a schedule, injecting medicine as required, undertake medical investigations at homes such as blood sugar or blood pressure tests as advised by the doctor and record the same in a chart to be reported to the doctor. Their responsibility entails them to monitor the health condition of the patient during their working hours and inform the guardian of the patient or even the doctors. Primary caregivers also provide the service of dressing of wounds.

PRIMARY CAREGIVERS WITH DAILY ACTIVITY ASSISTANCE

This type of caregivers or elderly care nurses assists patients with daily activities apart from medical care. The activities include helping the patient with daily chores such as feeding, bathing, brushing, maintaining the highest level of toilet hygiene, helping the patient with mobility such as getting out of the bed to assist the patient while going to the toilet.

PRIMARY CAREGIVERS WITH ALL ROUND ASSISTANCE

This type of home care nurses specializing in elderly care provide services instrumental to daily living and functioning of the patient and his surrounding environment. Such services include cooking food for the patient as per the strict dietary requirements as suggested by the physician. She will follow a procedure of cooking that maintains the highest standard of hygiene and retains maximum nutritional value. The food also balances the different nutritional requirements of the patient. The all-around elderly caregiver ensures that the environment in which the patient is living maintains cleanliness to prevent germs. The nurse ensures cleaning of the room in which the patient resides and set some rules for visitors as well as family members entering the area.

CAREGIVERS WITH EMOTIONAL ASSISTANCE

Mental health and a positive spirit to fight diseases are a huge area of concern and requires specialized care. Terminally ill patients, patients with disability or fighting malignant diseases such as cancer often suffer from stress and actively seek the company of caregivers who provide them with the courage to fight such health conditions. Home health care agencies providing services for elderly care appoint a special category of nurses with training to deal with cognitive and mental health issues. If your patient has any such mental health issues and you are not being able to spare enough time with your loved one to help him/her overcome such a delicate phase in life, you should go for caregivers who can provide emotional assistance to your loved one along with medical care.

WHAT’S NEXT WHEN YOU HAVE ALREADY CHOSEN A CATEGORY OF CAREGIVER?

Now that you have chosen a home nurse for the care of your elderly patient at home, it’s time to have a one-to-one conversation with the caregiver and list down the responsibilities specifically required by your patient. At this stage, it is important for you to reveal every medical detail related to the health of your patient and create a schedule of activities in consultation with your elderly home care expert. Since the engagement between the elderly care nurse and the patient is not going to be one that is restricted to functional activities so it is advisable to facilitate a beforehand conversation between the caregiver and the elder patient to find out how they go along emotionally as care is more about emotional bonding that leads to wellness.

Based on the above categories choose an elderly home care nurse suitable to your requirements from a reputed agency with necessary accreditations to provide you with a caregiver who can make your loved one’s journey in the senile age a truly caring one.

Tags elderly care, home nurse

Maternity Care

Importance of Maternity Nurse to Make your Motherhood journey Fascinating

Post author By Nightingale
Post date May 13, 2019
No Comments on Importance of Maternity Nurse to Make your Motherhood journey Fascinating

A maternity nurse is someone who guides you through every new step you take in the fascinating phase of your life: motherhood. If it’s an educational, safe and caring experience for both the mother and the newborn in case it’s your first child; second-time parents would also agree about the importance of a maternity nurse for postnatal care for a period of first six months after delivery.

A midwife or a qualified nurse is someone who will station herself in your house for a period not extending more than six months in most cases and provide maternity care to you and your newborn, 24X7, helping you with breastfeeding the newborn, taking care of both of your health and medical supervision, maintain utmost hygiene, emotionally support a mother to cope with motherhood and even initiate practices that lead to a healthy physical and mental development of the child.

Here’s what to expect as services from the maternity nurse the next time you get to interview one and entrust her with this extremely intimate and important task in your life.

As they say, real motherhood begins after you get discharged from the hospital and you are at home. This is where post-maternity care begins in the qualified hands of a maternity nurse.

Breastfeeding is one of the most important activities of motherhood enforcing a special bond between the mother and the child. A maternity nurse should educate the mother about the right procedure of breastfeeding and monitor the breastfeeding cycle. Also, assisting the mother with breast care and ensuring that the child is fed in the right proportion.

The maternity nurse also looks after the food and nutrition challenges of a mother who has just entered motherhood as it is inevitable that a healthy mother raises a healthy child. And at a later stage, the maternity nurse takes care of the diet of the child once he starts having cooked or supplemental foods.

During the early phase of motherhood, the sleep cycle of the mother gets disturbed in order to get used to the sleep patterns of the newborn. The maternity nurse ensures that both get their quota of proper sleep.

Proper maintenance of postnatal cleanliness is paramount for the health of the mother and the infant. As a major duty of the maternity nurse, she ensures the hygiene of the highest standard in the household so that the mother and the child do not get susceptible or contract to any infection. Also, the midwife helps in the dressing of the wound of the mother in a timely and a proper manner. Changing and cleaning of nappies of the newborn, keeping the baby clean and giving him a bath is all part of the responsibilities of the nanny.

Coping up with motherhood is a challenge both physically and mentally. Guiding through the process of sleeplessness, postnatal pain, periodic medical checkups, and routine tests are the home maternity nurse who lets you slowly cope up with it and get back to daily chores and routine life.

Every family has a different set of needs. When first-time parents want to know what those grunting noises or yellow poops of the baby means from the maternity nurse then, on the other hand, parents who are not new to parenthood will be busy introducing the new member to his siblings. In either case, the role of a maternity nurse comes handy in helping to set the new baby into the family without too many disruptions or any jealousy issue between siblings.

Another great advantage of postnatal care at home is the time that a mother can afford to get well, to get back to normal living without having to worry about the child while doing activities like taking a shower. She will know that her baby is in safe hands under the supervision of a maternity nurse. This is of utmost importance with families living in fast-paced cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where most members of the family are busy in their professional capacities and hardly with any time to spare at home during the day.

There are numerous agencies providing postnatal care, home nanny services, maternity care services in and around your city of Dubai. Before choosing a professional maternity nurse you need to ensure that you have communicated clearly about your expectations to the agency and the maternity nurse. So that they can provide you with an expert person who is the right fitment for your needs. You can always take a cue from the areas discussed above to best understand the role of nannies. Always remember that a post-maternity nurse is someone with whom you are going to have a very intimate relationship and ensure that the person has the right temperament and calmness required for the job. Nightingale Dubai can always be consulted if you are in Dubai for the best quality and professional service when it comes to providing an accredited professional midwife or a post-maternity nurse.

Tags maternity nurse, motherhood

Post-Cesarean Care

All You Need to Know About Cesarean Post-Operative Care Before Going for Childbirth

Post author By Nightingale
Post date May 7, 2019
No Comments on All You Need to Know About Cesarean Post-Operative Care Before Going for Childbirth

Cesarean operations are common today and recommended as the safest option to avoid any health concerns related to you and your child during childbirth. Here’s all you need to know about Cesarean post-operative care, the time you are supposed to spend in the hospital including precautions to take, how to manage pain and including when can you go home.

POSTNATAL CARE AFTER CESAREAN DELIVERY

Care after C-section delivery begins with mother and baby being moved from the operation table to a smaller ward for observing their condition often called as the recovery room. After a few hours, you will be moved to the postnatal ward with your baby. It is here where regular checks will be undertaken to see if the anaesthesia is wearing off along with other regular checks for blood pressure, breathing, wound relief for the first few hours by a nurse. Your vaginal bleeding will also be monitored to ensure that your maternal pads are replaced in a timely manner. A catheter to drain urine from your bladder is likely to be removed after 12 hours of your operation. You will be made to wear compression stockings to reduce any risk of blood clots. In the postnatal ward, you will be on a drip until you feel ready for taking food and drinks.

AFTER CESAREAN OPERATION CARE

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND WHILE RECOVERING

You are likely to feel wobbly and unsteady while you make an attempt to stand up and go for a walk to the bathroom especially with the catheter on. Let your nurse help you the first time around with such activities. Also, your abdomen area may feel heavy, consult your nurse so that she can give you some medicine beforehand.

You will be advised to drink plenty of fluids after removal of the catheter and your nurse may measure the amount of urine you are passing to check if there no problems with your urinary bladder. If you have any problem while passing urine you should tell your midwife about it.

The pain post cesarean operation will continue to persist and in certain cases may be for a week. For pain alleviation, you will be having painkillers. Make sure the dose of the painkiller is strictly monitored by the nurse as certain painkillers may be harmful to your baby as you would be breastfeeding.

It’s important to have some mobility after your C-section operation to reduce blood clots. At the same time, you should drink plenty of fluids and will be given a daily injection for blood thinning by your nurse.

When you get out of bed to have a shower you may feel a strong sensation of pain in your abdomen. Keeping your hand pressed against it will give you some relief.

For dressing of the wound, it should always be done by a nurse or under your nurse’s care and supervision. The first time the wound would be dressed will be after 24 hours of cesarean delivery. Don’t worry if your wound gets wet as it is waterproof. Your wound would be closed either by clips or stitches and it should only be removed in case of cesarean care only by a trained midwife after a week or so by visiting your home.

Vaginal bleeding post-cesarean delivery is normal and you should not panic. It would continue for two to six weeks after childbirth. The reason behind it is that the separation of the placenta from the womb.

Drinking prune juice, peppermint tea can help you improve your bowel movement post cesarean delivery.

Cesarean post-operative care ensures the best ways for you to bond with your baby with a midwife teaching you the right way to breastfeed and ensure that you and your baby has maximum skin contact.

If you and your baby are well, you will be released from the hospital between two to four days. In case you or your baby have any added complications then your stay could extend for a while. A mother is released after C-section delivery only when her mind is peaceful and at rest after an operation.

As an extension of postoperative care from the premises of the hospital to your home, health visitors, or midwife will visit your home at regular intervals to help you with medicines, health monitoring and even some time to put you in touch with other parents and local support groups.

We would recommend you to have trust on your midwife and follow her instructions as dutifully as possible and do not be afraid of a C-section surgery as with high standard cesarean post-operative care, the entire procedure will pass on smoothly and would be over in no time.

Tags care, Cesarean, childbirth, post-operative

Palliative Care

Things to Know for Palliative Nursing Care in Dubai Homes

Post author By Nightingale
Post date April 16, 2019
No Comments on Things to Know for Palliative Nursing Care in Dubai Homes

senior care nurse — Palliative care nurse

Elderly members of a family are often diagnosed with incurable medical conditions, and coping with such a situation becomes a traumatic journey for both the patient and their families. However, it’s not just elderly family members but people of any age can suffer from such non-communicable debilitating diseases and would require holistic care at home. Cancer sufferers account to be the highest among them.

As per a recent World Health Organization (WHO) report, the population of UAE (United Arab Emirates), which is one of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries, is around 9,200,000 million. Out of which, only 15 per cent are considered as Emirates nationals, the rest are expatriates. The vast population of expatriates from diverse nationalities of the world is especially strong in cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

No wonder then that with such a diverse mix of population, which thrives on its working professionals, and expats staying away from their extended family or support group, home healthcare in Dubai especially to manage symptoms related to pain is of paramount importance. In the recent years, there has been a lot of emphasis from the health authorities of these cities to actively start bringing palliative care services into a more structured, and standardized module to help minimize the sufferings of those involved.

The Primary Focus of Home Palliative Care

Given the cultural and linguistic barriers, often patients suffering from critical conditions lead an isolated journey. This should be the primary focus of modern-day, updated palliative nursing care provided by nursing homes. They should address the issues of psychological demotivation, seclusion or loneliness arising from cultural gap, unstructured palliative care modules failing to address diverse timings and weekend-based needs of many expat families and above all, the dignity and kindness that all such patients deserve. Moreover, it is often the wish of such families and patients that they spend the last leg of their journey of life in the familiar comfort of home, which is often a keeper of memories.

Effective pain alleviation, proper assessment and management of pain symptoms and somatic symptoms, handing depression among patients and easing out their daily life are the core areas of palliative care that are being addressed today.

What are the Advantages of Home Palliative Care?

Palliative care also covers alleviation of pain and symptoms and suffering from treatments or surgery. At Nightingale Dubai, our holistic palliative care at home aims to supports patients and families through sensitive and advanced caring. Palliative home care services also ensure that frequent hospital trips are minimized and medical care expenses are cut down considerably. This often leaves families with more savings to further invest in quality palliative care nurses at home.

An ideal palliative care bouquet should include:

Alleviation of pain and uncomfortable symptoms
Administration of medication as needed (orally, through IV or injection)
Coordinating with doctors regarding daily upkeep and care management
Devising a daily routine around the patients
Providing assistance with difficult medical decisions
Helping in daily activities

Alleviation of pain and uncomfortable symptoms: Pain due to destabilizing diseases are commonly experienced by patients. In cases of surgeries and treatments of non-communicable incurable diseases that involve crucial bodily pain, palliative care primarily involves recognizing symptoms of pain, relapse and alleviation through proper monitoring, administration of prescription drugs and routine check-up of body rashes, bed sores etc.

Administration of medication as needed (orally, through IV or injection): In fact, administration of medicine–oral or through IV or injection on a proper, timely basis and also maintaining proper clinical hygiene of the equipment and those bodily areas is a vital component of palliative care.

Coordinating with doctors regarding daily upkeep and care management: This is another major responsibility of palliative care nurses at home. Regular communication with the concerned doctor regarding the stability of patients, observing and reporting of symptoms and contrary indications on a priority to help arrest complications right at the onset fall under the purview home care nurses.

Devising a daily routine around the patients: Once a comfort level is reached with the patient and the family, home healthcare nurses should be able to devise a sustainable routine that takes care of the patient’s daily dietary and medicine intake, fluid intake, sleep and rest, recommended exercises and engaging healthy activities like reading, listening to music, talking or any such activity that helps patients restore a balance of life.

Providing assistance with difficult medical decisions: Providing guidance on taking important medical decisions like medicine dosages etc during the course of a day also comes under the purview of a medically trained palliative care nurse.

Helping in daily activities: Assisting patients with day-to-day rituals of taking shower, toilet activities, taking meals, moving around, taking medicines, performing exercises–all have to dutifully performed by clinically treated palliative care nurses. While performing all these chores, it is most important that the nurse maintains respectful distance and composure of manners such as not to compromise on the patient’s dignity.

At Nightingale Dubai, we understand the critical as well as the delicate nature of palliative care services at home. Hence, our registered nurses are well-trained to provide positive counseling to patient at such a difficult and often destabilizing phase of their life apart from dealing with them with utmost care and respect. We understand that for a family to entrust invaluable members of their families to the care of a nurse at such a stage of their life must be fall of worries and guilt, and we only works towards filling that gap in an objective and yet homely manner.

Tags care home, dubai, palliative care

Baby Care Babysitting Child care

Tips for Finding Ideal Part-Time Nannies in Dubai

Post author By Nightingale
Post date April 8, 2019
No Comments on Tips for Finding Ideal Part-Time Nannies in Dubai

A burgeoning city of expats, Dubai is teeming with a multitude of new mothers, often of diverse nationalities, age, linguistic and professional profiles. The demand to get back to normal (by which, we refer to the outside professional life) is pressing after six months of childbirth. Since most expat women are independent and work equally to support their families and raise their children, most of them can’t afford to take a longer sabbatical from work.

For some, there may be some helping hand and holistic support in the form of their parents, in-laws or elders staying together. But even they might need some care and assistance to ease them through their daily chores. And in families with more than one child, there might also be a necessity for hiring professional help.

Who is a Part-time Nanny?

In comes a nanny in Dubai. A professional caregiver, trained to assist with day-to-day childcare. However, recent working mothers’ blogs in Dubai show that with some experience in raising their elder child and with the presence of family elders, they look forward to hiring part-time nannies or weekend nannies in case they are freelancers whose volume of work increases on weekends. So, for freelance or weekend-working mothers, as well as mothers with some helping hand present in their family or mothers with some prior experience in childcare, the answer lies in hiring a part-time nanny for in-home infant care. This also helps them cut down on the fees of a full-time nanny and invest the money in quality childcare.

However, one can’t easily find a part-time nanny agency in Dubai. One has to ask for part-time nanny recommendations in their neighbourhood and/or at regular nanny agencies. One can look at sharing part-time nannies in their known circle of friends and neighbours. This solves the problem of reliability and also helps in cost-cutting.

Checklist for Hiring Part-time Nannies
Hiring a nanny or babysitter at home is no child’s play, one needs to check a few vital parameters before that. At Nightingale Dubai, we make sure that our professionally trained nannies are well-versed with the demands of modern-day holistic newborn care at home. Most importantly, at Nightingale Dubai, we work with nannies who are willing to work on a part-time basis and on weekend shifts or late-night shifts.

Here’s a look at the necessary qualifications and traits that a professional nanny must be equipped with:

Friendly, positive, and caring attitude
Basic child teaching tools
Preliminary medical care

1. Friendly, positive, and caring attitude: A friendly and trustworthy nanny is the biggest lookout for a family. A homecare nanny must have balanced temperament to tackle the moods of a newborn, be non-judgemental towards the child, and positive so that the child imbibes a cheerful personality. All these are important factors for any parent to consider, as in the absence of a family member, the nanny is going to be the most important psychologically influential person in the child’s life. This is very important factor for a part-time nanny as they get to spend lesser time with the child than a regular nanny and developing that bond with the child might be more difficult.

2. Basic child teaching tools: This involves age-appropriate language-learning and educational activities with the help of learners’ books and games. A well-trained nanny must be able to engage the child’s potential and mind through a series of story telling techniques, learning games, and playful activities. When the child is big enough to go out to take classes in sports or arts, the job of a part-time nanny is also to ferry the child to her classes and back home safely and cover up for the time the parents are not available.

3. Preliminary medical care: This includes day-to-day caring for the child and administering medical care whenever the need be in terms of medicines of first-aid for the duration for which they have been hired.

Here is a list of daily duties that part-time nannies working in Dubai need to fulfill:

Nursery duties
Fulfilling the emotional void
Keeping the home environment stimulating
Monitoring the child’s daily nutrition needs

Nursery duties: Often part-time nannies are hired for assisting with children’s daily nursery duties including preparing children’s meals, feeding and cleaning, washing and ironing clothes, making beds on weekends or during late-night shifts. So, they need to devise their daily routine in a manner which covers the needful applicable for that time.

Fulfilling the emotional void: A major problem that a parent faces is that their child misses them when they are not present at home. It is within the professional premises of a qualified baby sitter’s role to fill that gap in the most loving, caring, and engaging manner possible. A part-time also needs to emotionally invest in the child such as to develop both a fruitful, productive as well as a mutually enjoyable time together. Devising learning and enriching activities that the child and enjoys doing could be one of the more fruitful ways of doing this.

Keeping the home environment stimulating: It is the role and duty of a professional, part-time nanny to keep the home environment stimulating enough for the child. Cooking delicious meals, hosting interactive story telling and play acting sessions, and engaging the child in games and activities like building blocks keep the home environment creatively charged, no matter for what duration of time the part-time nanny fills in.

Monitoring the child’s daily nutrition needs: Another cause of concern for parents is whether the child is getting their daily dose of nutrition or not. The part-time nanny must adhere to a well-balanced diet in consultation with the parents, and if need be the child’s physician, to ensure that all the vital nutrients are maintained and there is enough variety of healthy and nourishing food for good growth. They must also be mindful or dietary restrictions and allergies if so prescribed and keep medical contacts on speed dial in case of an emergency.

At Nightingale Dubai, we understand that a part-time nanny’s engagement level has to be optimal in order to provide holistic care. And our registered part-time nannies are flexible, caring and objective enough to smoothly operating within their unorthodox shifts.

Tags dubai, par-time nanny

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