Before I arrive
We agree a time that suits your day, not mine. You do not need to tidy, get dressed, or have a list of questions ready. If your baby is mid-feed when I knock, that is perfect timing rather than bad.
The first part: how you are
We start with you. Your bleeding, your stitches or your caesarean wound, your pain, your sleep, your mood and how the last few days have really gone. I check what needs checking and I listen to the rest.
This part matters as much as anything I do for your baby, and it is the part most often skipped elsewhere.
The middle: a whole feed
Then we feed. I watch a feed from beginning to end — how your baby attaches, how they suck and swallow, how you are holding them, how it feels for you. Small changes here make an enormous difference, and I will show you rather than just tell you.
If bottles or mixed feeding are part of your picture, that is included. There is no version of feeding I disapprove of.
The rest: your baby, top to toe
Weighing, growth, jaundice, cord, skin, reflexes and any of the small worries you have been Googling at night. Then we talk about behaviour and sleep for this exact age, so you know what to expect this week rather than in theory.
Afterwards
You keep notes and a plan, and you keep me. Calls and texts between visits are part of your care, not an imposition — most questions are two minutes and a great deal of relief.
That is it. Ninety minutes, in your own home, with the same person every time.
— Penny