Business partners and friends Stefni Baigent-Lucas (left) and Portia OKane launched LuxeCare, New Zealand's first postnatal 5-star hotel service. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Business partners and friends Stefni Baigent-Lucas (left) and Portia OKane launched LuxeCare, New Zealand's first postnatal 5-star hotel service. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Champagne on tap and spa treatments at the ready - this isn't your usual afterbirth care.
But for $980 a night, mums can now recuperate from childbirth while dipping their toes in 5-star luxury at Auckland's waterfront Sofitel Hotel.
Room service with a side of bassinet and en-suites that include baby baths is the brainchild of friends Portia OKane and Stefni Baigent-Lucas.
The pair launched LuxeCare - the first postnatal hotel to be born in New Zealand following a growing trend overseas.
As soon as mums and their newborns have been discharged from hospital, they could check into the Viaduct Harbour hotel to indulge in their postnatal package.
"With your second, third or fourth baby, you're so much more relaxed and you don't need someone knocking on your door every 20 minutes trying to teach you how to breastfeed a different way than the last person taught you, you are just more confident," OKane said.
Midwives can still do their required post-partum visits at the hotel. A lactation consultant and a nurse were available for daily check-ups.
Baigent-Lucas said a hotel stay was probably safer than going straight home because the suite was so close to the hospital if anything went wrong.
LuxeCare started after OKane moved back to New Zealand from Australia. As a mum-of-three she had used a similar service in Australia after her first baby was born.
"Over there, they have private hospitals that you birth in and then a hotel stay attached to that."
A Langham Hotel in New York also gained attention this month as the country's first "postnatal retreats", with rooms that cost up to $3100 per night.
OKane said she was surprised to see New Zealand didn't have a similar service to offer.
"I said to Stef, 'where do we book in?' and she was like, 'book in where?," OKane said.
They decided to join forces to get New Zealand's first postnatal hotel running, and partnered with the Sofitel Hotel, which had already been contemplating a similar operation.
They launched in March last year, but Covid set them back so they had to cancel nearly a whole year's worth of bookings. It wasn't until January they became operational and since then demand has gone through the roof, Baigent-Lucas said.
OKane said mums were booking seven months in advance and they had been receiving referrals from private obstetricians and gynaecologists.
"It's been ridiculous. We probably get two or three inquiries a day," she said.
They said 85 per cent of mums came from Origins, which is a private obstetrics clinic based in Mt Eden.
"They have been desperate for something like us," OKane said.
Baigent-Lucas said they also offered staged payments over a year so the bill didn't end up being quite as hefty as a lump sum of nearly $3000 for three nights, which was the standard stay.
"A lot of people hadn't travelled because of Covid and were putting that money into taking some time and spoiling themselves after nine months' pregnancy."
OKane and Baigent-Lucas are both mums and know the importance of rest after giving birth. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
"We also have a lot of people who have been given it as a baby shower present from a group of friends."
The postnatal package included a gourmet breakfast for two, an $100 daily credit that could be used for food and beverage or the spa, and an array of various newborn gadgets like an Edwards & Co stroller.
She said some women were giving birth and going straight to Birthcare for a night and then staying with them.
The pair were also planning to launch a similar service in Wellington and Christchurch.
"We were approached by an obstetric clinic in Wellington who had nothing like this down there and really wanted it launched as soon as possible."
The plan is for the Wellington hotel service to be running by the end of the year.
However, LuxeCare isn't the only service noticing the trend towards high-end postnatal comfort.
Birthcare - which is a birthing hospital that also offers postnatal healthcare and has been operating for 30 years- is also planning to refurbish postnatal rooms to have large hotel- like suites, Evolution Healthcare's chief executive officer Sue Channon said.
Birthcare differs from LuxeCare as it is a healthcare provider and has a multidisciplinary team of specialists, including
midwives, nurses, lactation consultants, physiotherapists, childbirth educators, paediatricians and offers access to its Re-centre mental health clinicians, Channon said.
"Parents are well supported through guidance and quality care as they embark on their new journey into parenthood."
