The Nurture Centre

Claire Ward is the Founder of The Nurture Centre, a platform connecting people navigating pregnancy and early parenthood with maternal health gurus.

More than 300,000 babies are born in Australia each year. For new parents, this extraordinary time gives rise to a spectrum of emotions, from unbridled joy, to less welcome experiences of exhaustion, uncertainty, and isolation.

A mother of two, Claire’s early parenting journey, like many, was a huge learning curve.

“When my first daughter was born, it quickly became clear that she wasn’t thriving like she should be. It took many months for her to be diagnosed with severe reflux. The impact this had on our everyday life was huge, for all of us,” says Claire.

“Those early months were also a blur of sleep deprivation and my own recovery. The only thing I remember thinking is ‘I need to find an hour to sleep today’.”

Desperate for a solution to ease her baby’s pain, Claire finally landed on infant massage.

So effective was the treatment, Claire underwent training and eventually started training other parents from her loungeroom. Before long, she noticed the exact same themes presenting over and over among her growing network.

“While everyone has a different birth, and their own unique story, I could see a very clear gap emerging – people weren’t getting what they needed out of the traditional approach,” says Claire.

As the proverb goes, ‘it takes a village to raise a baby’, a concept never more apparent than amid a pandemic, with parents and babies cut off from support networks.

“Parents of newborns absolutely need a support network. It’s a time of huge upheaval, when everyone feels out of their depth and unprepared. There’s also exhaustion and physical recovery in the mix. First time mums who don’t have family in Newcastle have found the last two years incredibly challenging,” says Claire.

With many specialty offerings in the maternal health field emerging, there’s more help available. But, says Claire, most new parents have no idea what’s available or where to look.

Over the last two and a half years, Claire has made ‘connection’ her mission.

She launched The Nurture Centre to address the disconnect between parents in need and evidence-based maternal health practitioners offering treatments and services not catered for in the traditional system.

“There shouldn’t be this commonly accepted mentality of ‘just survive newborn life’. There are a growing number of solutions out there, people just need help identifying them,” says Claire.

The Nurture Centre is a web-based platform that vets practitioners, ensuring service levels match what we’d expect from traditional health care providers - removing any guess work.

“We have a team of 11 practitioners with health and wellbeing backgrounds. They have either worked a long time in their fields and could see a better way to do things, or have pivoted into small business after their own ‘ah-ha’ moment.”

It’s a one stop shop from conception through to parenthood.

“We find that our customers typically see 2-3 different practitioners as they progress through key milestones. For example they may come first to see a lactation consultant, then a baby massage therapist, and later, a nutritionist as their baby moves to solid food.”

“The beauty of The Nurture Centre is integrated continuity of care. It builds a lot of trust and loyalty.”

For Claire, the Female Founders Program came at the perfect time, helping her solve complexities associated with her dual customer base of parents and practitioners, and her role in her business.

“I came into the program with certain ideas. Two weeks in I flipped it, then as I moved through the Program I rewrote it again! I’ve also figured out how to narrow down the scope of the roles I play in my business,” says Claire.

Leveraging the rapid iteration mentality cultivated throughout the program, Claire pushed herself to investigate key aspects of her business she had been avoiding.

“Through the Program, I revisited some initial business steps of customer discovery interviews. These conversations can be a bit confronting and awkward, but I had the right support to keep me going. The insight I’ve gained as a result has been transformational,” says Claire.

After three months spending time among so many talented women, Claire admits she doesn’t want the program to end.

“I’ll be sad to see it end. We’ve got to know each other’s businesses really well and quickly formed a culture of sharing and collaboration.”

Having just launched her website, Claire is now focussed on establishing membership services for her practitioners and launching a marketing strategy.

“I can’t wait to start driving people to the website. All of this activity brings us closer to our goal of helping communities rewrite the book on early parenthood.”

You can contact Claire at claire@thenurturecentre.com.au