What's the difference between a Night nanny, postpartum doula and Newborn care specialist?

A Night Nanny is simply a term used for someone who cares for a baby or child at night. This is a broad term that can have many different meanings. It's up to you to inquire about education and experience.
Postpartum doulas are trained to support the family unit.
They should have knowledge of pregnancy and childbirth topics and postpartum recovery. They will have training on a variety of physical postpartum complications, postpartum mood disorders, and resources for common postpartum issues.
Primary Role:

• Emotional, physical, and informational support for the parent during the postpartum period.

Typical Focus:

• Emotional support and reassurance
• Light household tasks
• Meal prep (varies widely by doula)
• Infant care guidance (varies widely by doula)
• Supporting parental recovery

What They Do Not Typically Do:

• Provide structured newborn-only care
• Focus exclusively on infant routines
• Replace hands-on newborn caregivers
• Offer formal newborn education programs

Key Distinction:

• A postpartum doula supports the whole family system, not just the baby.
• ​Many postpartum doulas can provide extra support on more 'natural' parenting, like cloth diapering, baby wearing, alternative medical resources like infant chiropractic care, natural pediatric care, etc.
• *Interview doulas carefully to make sure your philosophies align. Many doulas carry strong biases for/against certain parenting styles and may not adhere to safe sleep guidelines. Some postpartum doulas do not have a good understanding of sleep hygiene or developmentally appropriate sleep conditioning and might actually worsen unsustainable sleep associations.  (The Newborn Dream Team postpartum doulas are committed to safe sleep and good sleep hygiene)
• Postpartum doulas may not have any training/education or experience. You do not have to be trained as a doula to use the title of doula. They simply align themselves with the philosophies of other postpartum doulas. Postpartum doulas, like night nannies are not regulated or licensed so it's up to you to make sure individuals meet your standards for care.

A newborn care specialist will provide professional care and education focused exclusively on newborns (typically age 0-12 weeks)
​Typical Focus:

• ​Committed to safe newborn care and safe sleep guidelines
• Feeding support and education (lactation and safe formula prep)
• Soothing techniques
• Age-appropriate routines
• Newborn sleep foundations, sleep hygiene and gentle sleep conditioning/sleep shaping
• Hands-on parent education

What They Do Not Typically Do:

• Long-term childcare
• Sleep training
• Household management
• Medical care

Key Distinction:
A Newborn Care Specialist’s goal is to care for the baby while teaching the parents. A newborn care specialist can take "full charge" of an infant or work in a collaborative role with parents and other caregivers.
While there are many (hundreds to thousands of) options for postpartum doulas to gain certification, there are only a few gateways to certification for Newborn Care Specialists. If a Newborn Care Specialist has gone through the trouble of actually becoming certified (not just received a certificate of attendance at training) they should take their role seriously and generally have education and experience to back it up.

Our CACHE certified Newborn Care Specialists have completed training requirements/testing and a minimum of 5000 hours of working with babies under 3 months of age. They are highly qualified and experienced and provide mentorship and guidance to the entire team so you receive the best of both worlds. Our specialty is to provide the type of care that you want and need for your individual parenting style. We are happy to provide care just for your baby. We are also very knowledgeable about all the 'crunchy' stuff you may want to know or not know about. 

We happily accommodate any reasonable request to support a family while we are working with them. We will happily wash and put away dishes, change the sheets on the bed, help set up a breast pump and bathe and swaddle the baby. If you need someone to help you with a trip to the pediatrician, we are more than happy to ride along. ​