Family is surprised as birthday cake reveals the surprise of pregnancy
In Orlando, Florida, the family of Ben and Rachel Miller read, “We’re pregnant!”, written on Rachel’s birthday cake.
Katie Pettine attracted the world’s attention in her unique work. Parents take uninterrupted rest for newborn diapers, including eight hours of night shift, belching, and changing.
The video of the 23-year-old’s job as a night nanny included many commenters asking how she would be paid to hold a stranger baby in the middle of the night.
“This is actually very cool (you) how do you get into this?” he said.
The profession appeals to some who are seeking additional income in a challenging economy. A Baltimore undergraduate student, Pettine has been working as a night nanny for about five years, picking up shifts tailored to her academic schedule and other jobs. She earned about $30,000, supporting around 26 families part-time from July 2024 to July 2025.
The job “helped me through college,” she said.
These nighttime helpers go with different 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, a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst University.
What’s changing now is that work has become mainstream thanks to the new attention of creators like Pettine. She has nearly 200,000 Tiktok followers watching her journey.
But some people have told USA Today that there are still many things that are misunderstood about their career. There are also a few things that people want to know before signing up for an overnight shift with diapers or spitting.
“A lot of people think it’s a rainbow, but it’s not,” said Christine Smith, executive director of the Association of Newborn Care Specialists. “It’s exhausting hard work.”
Trends driven by parental burnout
A factor that shaping the popularity of nurses at night is that parents live away from relatives and feel overworked, Perry Jenkins said.
Night care helps you avoid fatigue and get back to work faster. The price — between $35 and $40 per hour (often not covered by insurance) — may be worth it, she said.
Courtney Long doesn’t need one specific background, according to Courtney Long, director of recruitment and brand engagement at Hush Hush Little Baby Newborn Care, a national institution that coincides with over 350 night helpers, including health professionals, students, retirees, nannies and even other parents.
“Boths are on the rise,” Long said of the number of families who hire helpers and experts who are trying to take on clients. “To enter the industry is low financial investment. You can enter a new career without investing tens of thousands of dollars and entering student loan debt.”
One group that jumps on the occasion is a registered nurse looking for burnout relief. Christina Zelda, 29, an RN of Fairfax, Virginia, cared for at least four mothers and babies in one bedside shift at the hospital where she worked.
“I’ll see my family and I won’t see them the next day,” Zelda said.
Now, her flexible roles are leveraging her expertise. Zelda is less than he made at his bedside, but it’s worth avoiding depletion, she said.
This job also fascinates career changes. Reneé Crooks, a 39-year-old newborn care expert, knew that his banking and finance degree would not translate when he moved from Jamaica to Delaware. There she was certified health and safety, including CPR and first aid for infants, and started working to interact in a new country.
“I know there are a lot of us,” Crooks said of the DMS flood she received about starting. “I feel like there are more nurses who follow me than mommy.”
Enthusiasm about hot work
The popularity of Tiktok in the industry poses the risk of glossing difficult and lonely jobs and glossing jobs, Long said.
“One person’s ‘night in my life’ seems to look the same as another person,” Long said. “It creates this perception, it’s really easy…it’s not just that.”
The training covers baby topics, but does not tell you that you are familiar with the business you need to get a high salary, according to Smith, who runs a family well supported by Night Gales, who grew by about 64% in 2024. The agency serves 14 states and has a travel team of 24 people, including four night specialists traveling remotely via RV.
“What people don’t understand about this industry is that there are a lot of self-promotion and marketing that you need to do. So it’s all these Tiktok videos,” Smith said. “If you’ve set it up correctly, it seems like a high-profit industry. But it’s also difficult and could have huge burnout.”
This job is “Wild, Wild West.” Contractors waive healthcare and savings plans, self-control taxes and maintenance qualifications. And even after the contract was finalized, interpersonal issues such as schedule and lifestyle challenges have been added for a long time.
“When we bring in new people, I say to them, ‘I can’t guarantee you’ll work some amount with us or you’ll book a client,” Long said. “I’m trying to ease their enthusiasm.”
People like scammers who don’t use agents will navigate jobs with few guardrails. Just recently she lost six weeks of income (she usually goes between $5,000 and $8,000 a month).
“Of course I’ll go to work there,” she said. “But you should be able to sit in a chair and close your eyes for 20 minutes.”
For her, the experience highlights how the practices Crooks assumes to be the norm are for negotiation as they have become more “mainstream.”
“We are not protected,” said Crooks, who has three children herself. “People think we are glorious babysitters. Work is far more advanced than seeing babies.”
