What to Ask a Newborn Care Specialist in an Interview

If you’re looking to hire in-home support, you’ve come to the right place! You may have read our blog: 10 questions to ask a night nurse. When you are hiring a night nurse through us, the questions that you might ask them on an interview might be a bit different! Our “night nurses” are newborn care specialists, postpartum doulas RNs and LPs.

What you DON’T need to ask a Newborn Care Specialist in an interview:

• Are you CPR certified? [All of our team members have up to date CPR]
• Do you have a recent clear background check? [All of our team members submit their information for comprehensive background checks.]
• Are you a trained professional? [All of our team members have a certified training or license.]
• What will my schedule be? [We match our team members based on your requested schedule.]
• What do you charge? [Invoicing and contracting are handled by the agency and the family should always go into the interview informed of the pricing and process.]

What DO you need to ask in an interview?

The point of an interview is to get to know your potential newborn care specialist, so that you feel comfortable enough that you want to move forward with them. As a newborn care specialist myself, I’ve interviewed dozens of times, and the conversations always vary. I’ve had families that I chat with on the phone for 5 minutes, they ask me about my experience and they are good to go. And I’ve had families that I chat with for an hour on a video call that have a list of printed out questions that they are working through. Neither scenario is right or wrong!

General questions that you can ask when interviewing a newborn care specialist:

• Why did you choose this line of work? [This can help you get to know them a bit better.]
• Tell me about your experience with newborns. [An open ended question will give you more information about their experience vs how many babies they’ve supported or how many years they’ve worked.]
• Can you give us an example of a sample shift working with you? [This can help you get an idea of what your experience will be like, and may lead to follow-up questions.]
• What is your ideal schedule? [Sometimes a NCS might recommend that parents do 5 nights a week vs 4, or a 10 hour shift vs an 8 hour shift and explain the reasoning behind their recommendation.]
• Tell me about a recent rewarding experience with a client. [This can give you an idea of what they value.]
• Tell me how you would respond to our baby if they were having a challenging night. [This can give you more information on their philosophies for newborn care/soothing.]

What to expect from an interview with a Well Supported Family newborn care specialist:

An interview is typically 20-30 minutes long. It can be a phone call or a video call. You should leave the call feeling a sense of relief that you have someone experienced and supportive lined up to hold your hand on your journey to parenting your newborn!

We have a 95% success rate with first-time matches, but sometimes your Newborn Care Specialist may not feel like a fit, and that’s okay. We are happy to release their schedule and see if we may have someone else on our team for your family.

After you talk to your Newborn Care Specialist, be sure to circle back with us and let us know if you want to move forward!