Family stunned as birthday cake reveals pregnancy surprise
In Orlando, Florida, Ben and Rachel Miller’s family burst into tears of joy when they discover “We’re pregnant!” written on Rachel’s birthday cake.
Katie Pettine gave the world a look inside her unique job: An eight-hour night shift feeding, burping and changing a newborn’s diapers – all while the parents get uninterrupted rest.
The 23-year-old’s video of her tasks as a night nanny had many commenters asking how one gets paid to hold strangers’ babies in the middle of the night.
“This is actually super cool how do (you) get into this?” said one.
The profession appeals to some people seeking additional income in a challenging economy. Pettine, an undergraduate business student in Baltimore, has worked for about five years as a night nanny, picking up shifts that align with her academic schedule and other jobs. She’s made around $30,000 helping nearly 26 families part-time from July 2024 through July 2025.
The job “helped me through college,” she said.
These nighttime helpers go by a variety of names depending on someone’s credentials: Doula, night nanny, newborn care specialist or night nurse. Such roles have existed for centuries across cultures, according to Maureen Perry-Jenkins, psychology professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
What’s changed now is that the job is going mainstream thanks to new attention shed by creators like Pettine. She has nearly 200,000 TikTok followers watching her journey.
But some told USA TODAY there’s still a lot that’s misunderstood about their careers – and there are some things they want people to know before signing up for overnight shifts filled with diapers and spit-up.
“A lot of people think it’s rainbows, and it’s not,” said Kristin Smith, executive director of the Newborn Care Specialist Association. “It’s exhausting hard work.”
A trend driven by parent burnout
A factor shaping night nurses’ popularity is that parents are increasingly living away from relatives and feel overworked, Perry-Jenkins said.
Night care allows them to avoid exhaustion and get back to work sooner. The price —$35 to $40 an hour (often not covered by insurance) — can be worth it, she said.
The job doesn’t require one just one specific background, according to Courtney Long, director of recruitment and brand engagement at Hush Hush Little Baby Newborn Care, a national agency that helps match over 350 night helpers who are medical professionals, students, retirees, nannies and even other parents.
“Both are increasing,” Long said of the number of families hiring helpers and professionals looking to take on clients. “It’s a low financial investment to enter the industry … You can enter a new career without investing tens of thousands of dollars and going into student loan debt.”
One group jumping on the opportunity is registered nurses looking for relief from burnout. Cristina Zerda, 29, an RN in Fairfax, Virginia, used to care for at least four moms and babies in one bedside shift at the hospital she worked at.
“I would meet a family and just not see them the next day,” Zerda said.
Now her flexible role leverages her expertise. Zerda makes less than she made at the bedside, but it’s worth avoiding depletion, she said.
The job also attracts career-changers. Newborn care specialist Reneé Crooks, 39, knew her degree in banking and finance wouldn’t translate when she emigrated from Jamaica to Delaware. So she got health and safety certifications, including CPR and infant first aid, and started the job to make ends meet in a new country.
“I know there’s a lot of us,” Crooks said of the deluge of DMs she receives about getting started. “I feel like I have more nurses following me than moms.”
Tempering enthusiasm about a hot job
The industry’s TikTok popularity runs the risk of glossing over what is a difficult, lonely, job, Long said.
“What one person’s ‘night in my life’ looks like is not going to look the same for another person’s,” Long said. “It creates this perception it’s really easy … and that’s just not the case.”
Trainings cover baby topics but don’t teach the business savvy needed to garner high salaries, according to Smith, who runs Well Supported Family by Nightingales, which grew its staff of night specialists about 64% in 2024. The agency serves 14 states and has 24-person travel team, including four night specialists who travel via RV to service remote areas.
“What people don’t understand about this industry is there’s a lot of self promotion and marketing you need to do, hence all these TikTok videos,” said Smith. “It seems like a high-earning industry if you have it set up right. But it can also be hard and have a huge burnout-rate.”
This job is “the wild, wild west,” Long said. Contractors forgo healthcare and savings plans, self-manage taxes and upkeep certifications. And even once contracts are finalized, interpersonal issues like schedule and lifestyle pose challenges, Long added.
“When we bring on new people, I tell them, ‘I can’t make any guarantees you will work any amount with us or you’ll ever book a client,'” Long said. “I try to temper their enthusiasm.”
Those like Crooks who don’t use an agency navigate jobs with few guardrails. Just recently, she lost six weeks of income (she typically makes from $5,000 to $8,000 a month) because a family refused to let her nap intermittently, a practice she considered “a given.”
“Of course I’m going there to work,” she said. “But you should be able to sit in a chair and close your eyes for 20 minutes.”
To her, the experience underscored how since the job is has become more “mainstream,” practices Crooks assumed were standard are now up for negotiation.
“We’re unprotected,” said Crooks, who has three children of her own. “People think we are glorified babysitters. The job goes so much further beyond watching babies.”
