We employed Sarah Norris from when our youngest son was a week old on and off until he was 7 months. She is wonderful.

Sarah was able to fit into our busy and noisy family really well. She immediately got Walter into a routine that felt totally natural and unforced and that he thrived on.

Sarah has brilliant winding techniques. Walter was a windy baby and she was so patient at getting the bubbles out. It made him much calmer and more relaxed than he could have been otherwise. Sarah’s swaddling was a revelation. I can’t believe that I only discovered it on my fourth child. Swaddling was just brilliant for Walter and really helped him sleep for longer stretches.

Sarah was lovely with our other children (7,6,4) & they are very fond of her. She was very good at including them with their new brother, helping them to hold him while making sure he was protected.

Sarah travelled with us to Ireland twice and London many times, she came to three weddings and two funerals while Walter was only weeks old & also came with me to pony club camp where she had to juggle leading ponies with winding Walter.

She is a team player, she did her job with Walter very professionally and also contributed by helping out with various other thing from picking black currants, linking sausages, potting jam & reading to the older children to name some of the activities she helped with.

Sarah is a baby expert and she comes with my highest recommendation.

I have worked with several maternity nurses over the past few years, and I can say without hesitation that Sarah is the cream of the crop.

To begin with, Sarah is extremely experienced and talented at her job. I contacted her in a state of desperation after by baby son had regressed significantly on his sleep training and feeding. We had been traveling throughout the summer, and he was totally disorientated and unsettled. Within a couple of days of starting with us, Sarah already had him sleeping through the night. She very quickly managed to get the measure of his personality and individual needs. By the end of our month together she had taught me how to understand my baby and the ways in which he was communicating with me. When it was time for her to leave, I once again felt confident and capable.

Secondly, she is incredibly professional. The best example I can give is when the en-suite bathroom where she was staying flooded over night, and the room needed to be completely cleaned and disinfected. Despite having to cope with soaking carpets and misplaced furniture for the best part of a week, Sarah made no issue of this and carried on with her job without any complaint. She is always practical and adaptable, no matter the situation she is faced with.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that she is a very intellectual and interesting person to spend time with. She has written her own book, is part of several support groups for mothers, and has inspiring aspirations to reform the way mothers and babies are cared for in this country. It is often overlooked when employing a maternity nurse, that you will be spending a lot of time with the individual in a very intimate setting. The fact that I got to spend this time with someone so interesting and with so much passion in her beliefs was a delight.

Sarah has been an enormous asset to our family, and we can’t wait to invite her back if and when our family continues to grow!

The first time I met Sarah was when she was doing some emergency work for close friends, I knew then that she was who I wanted by my side when the day would come that I would have my own baby. We interviewed a few other maternity nurses, but we knew Sarah would be just the person to help us through this amazing adventure we were about to begin.

Sarah arrived at our house a few hours after coming home from hospital with our son and instantly we felt in good hands. Throughout the following five weeks my husband, myself, and Sarah became a team and together she helped us learn about our baby; what things worked and what didn’t, how to swaddle, how to sterilise, how to prepare to go out for the day with our baby, figuring out what routine worked best for our son, the list goes on and on. She taught us to listen to what our baby was telling us and how to decipher his code. My husband would sit and question Sarah every night for about an hour and she patiently sat with him and answered every single question. Never once was she disapproving, judgmental or overbearing.

When thinking of bringing someone to live in our home we were a bit anxious about living in close quarters with a virtual stranger, however are fears quickly dissipated; In fact, we found that actually we spent much of our time in Sarah’s room chatting and learning. When finding out we were pregnant with number 2 Sarah was our first phone call, as we couldn’t imagine going through this again without her by our side. Again, Sarah arrived not long after coming home from hospital. When I saw her I smiled, gave her a hug and said “I’m so happy you’re here” and turned and went to bed knowing that my brand new baby was in the best hands imaginable.

I still call Sarah for advice when I’m stuck and use what she has taught me every day as well as pass on the knowledge to friends when they are having difficulty deciphering their babies. Sarah has become a member of our family and I will be forever grateful to her for helping make our introduction into the world of babies as amazing as it has been.