How To Choose A Substitute Caregiver For Your Baby

How to go about choosing a substitute caregiver for your baby once you’re ready to go back to work

- Sally Michener

When considering returning to work after your maternity leave, what are your options for substitute care? Is your husband willing and able to share the parenting and provide a nurturing alternative? Do you have a substitute caregiver who’s basically a nurturing and responsive person?

After many mothers come to grips with the agonising reality of dual-career juggling, next comes the search for their care substitutes. The first step is to consider the care options that are feasible in one’s circumstances.

In-home care: Having your baby cared for in your own home is preferable. The advantages of home care are familiar surroundings, familiar toys, the germs that baby has already learnt to live with, no transportation hassles, and your familiarity with the home. Shared care by your spouse is usually best, next comes grandparents or close relatives. Though more costly, a trained nanny, an au pair or live-in help are other options. But once you go beyond the inner circle of family, relatives or intimate friends, a seemingly endless search begins.

Shared home care: An option for part-timers is sharing child care with a friend. “I’ll mother yours and you mother mine two and a half days a week”—or whatever schedule you work out. This deal brings you the advantage of having a like-minded caregiver and each is motivated to give the other person’s child the level of care they expect for their own. Friends with the same back-to-work schedule, and mates in your childbirth class, are ready sources.