Postby pie81 » Mon Nov 17, 2014 12:41 pm
I thought it was an interesting idea and a shame it's gone under. Two generations ago it was standard to spend 2 weeks in hospital post birth with your newborn so you could recover, establish feeding with midwife help and not have to deal with your older children. So I think the article is wrong to be snotty about this kind of choice.
That said personally if I have spare money to throw at post natal care, it will be spent on getting the best advisers I can find (paeds, breastfeeding consultants, physio checks etc) and/or home help (doula, maternity nurse) rather than on a hotel room.
I know they had advisers at Mermaid too, but much of the cost must surely have been the hotel room, which leaves me wondering how much could be spent on the advisers.
That does leave the issue of escaping from boisterous toddler while trying to get feeding established and recover from birth... Again however my preferred solution would be to spend money on keeping my first child's existing childcare going in the day, rather than a hotel room.
Perhaps there is a market for a "one stop shop" which can offer access to all the best private advisers/home help? As currently it's very hard to find out who to see/where to go for this kind of advice and help. And perhaps if it was set up a day centre it could also have some sitting rooms and a few bedrooms for mothers to come and escape?
