We know that sometimes you need some extra care and support during the pregnancy journey, and this can be hard to come by during your routine antenatal care. Our private antenatal support is the opportunity to explore in more detail any aspect of your pregnancy journey that you need and help ensure you have the time to ask any questions you may have about your early pregnancy or antenatal care and provide you with evidence based information to enable you to make truly informed decisions about your care. Partners are encouraged and welcome to join us – this bespoke service is for you and guided by what you need.

Creating a birth plan can feel like a daunting task for many and lead to unnecessary anxiety and stress, instead of feeling empowered. Our Birth Plan session is there to take the stress away – we will explore with you what you want, what your needs are and what options you have to help create a birth plan that is unique to your specific needs. Our midwives will use their experience to honestly and openly discuss with you the details behind each aspect of your birth plan to ensure you feel ready, informed and prepared for birth – however it may happen. Your birth planning session will include creating a birth plan for all eventualities – what we at NowBaby call the ABC options, so you and your partner feel able to make the best decisions for you whatever your birth looks like.​ Your midwife will write up a birth plan in a format that suits you best and email it across to you with additional reading and notes too.

Our postnatal support session is there to offer you that much needed support after the birth of your baby. Our experts include midwives, lactation consultants, paediatricians and child health specialists so you have a range of knowledgeable experts supporting you in the early days as new parents. The sessions will be at a time that suits you best and can be focussed on whatever you need – be it feeding advice, sleep support, advice on your postnatal recovery or a combination of all.

Yes – if you are feeling unheard or supported in your antenatal care and need the extra support to feel reassured. Our private midwifery service is for any aspect of your pregnancy journey – and we often find that people need that extra care and support in the first and second trimester when your routine antenatal care is quite spaced out but you need support the most.

The term private and independent midwife is used interchangeably – what they both refer to are midwives who work outside of the NHS in a private, paid for capacity. Private or independent midwifery can be either antenatal or postnatal care only, or can also include labour and birth care. Private/independent midwifery care requires the appropriate insurance.

As the majority of midwives in the UK are employed by the NHS, some midwives choose to work in the NHS and privately to provide a greater variety of care and expand their skills. The service we offer at NowBaby is to complement your NHS care, not replace it – our midwives will help you understand your care, explore with you how to advocate for yourself and support you in making evidence-based informed decisions.

As soon as you have decided to book a bespoke midwifery session and completed our booking form, our team will be in touch to arrange the best time and date for your online video session. You can choose a session as early as the first few days after finding out you are pregnant, to as late as the last few weeks of your pregnancy. The aim is to provide you with the advice and support you need, when you need it.

Your midwife will have read your booking form in detail to determine what kind of support you need and come prepared. The session can be as structured as you need it to be – it is very much guided by what you need. Your midwife will at the end of the session send you via email a written account of the session with links to further advice if needed.

As often as you need to. Our midwives will provide support and advice for as many sessions as needed, whilst ensuring that at the end of each session you feel empowered and supported to navigate your care and access the support you need in your NHS care too. We do not aim to replace your NHS antenatal care at all – we are here to be a supportive service if and when needed.

Of course – in fact it is very much encouraged! We know that having a partner or someone supportive with you can make the world of difference, and that partners often have questions and concerns they need support with too. As our sessions are online they have greater flexibility – so your partner / supporter can join you from another device if needed.