Sequence the hiring, not just the arrival
Work backwards from the due date rather than forwards from today. Interviewing, checking references, and completing the paperwork a helper needs before she can start all take weeks you cannot compress once labour begins, so a family that begins looking in month seven is already behind a family that began in month four.
Build in a buffer for the process to run long. Recruitment timelines slip for ordinary reasons, from a candidate's own document processing to a change of mind partway through, and a due date does not move to accommodate any of it.
- Start recruitment and interviews in the second trimester
- Allow extra weeks for document and permit processing
- Set a target start date at least four to six weeks before the due date
- Keep a backup plan if the timeline slips
Hand over the household before you hand over the baby
The pre-birth window is for teaching everything that does not depend on the baby existing yet: the kitchen, the cleaning schedule, how the family actually likes things done, where things are kept, and who to call for what. This is the calmest teaching period you will get, and it is wasted if the first weeks are spent explaining the pantry system while also recovering from birth.
Save the newborn-specific routines, such as feeding rhythms, settling preferences and the paediatrician's particular instructions, for after arrival, because a baby who does not exist yet has no pattern to teach. Trying to script that stage in advance produces guesses that get relearned anyway once the baby shows her own habits.
Put the plan in writing before the last few weeks
A late-pregnancy household is not the moment for a long verbal briefing. Write down the daily routine, the emergency contacts, the division of duties between the helper and other family members, and what changes once the baby comes home, so nobody has to remember it accurately at 3am.
Agree in advance on how the first two postnatal weeks will actually run, since that period often looks different from the steady-state arrangement described in the contract. A short written note on who does what in week one avoids friction precisely when everyone has the least patience for it.