If you’ve had babies, whether in the US or UK, you know that moment when you are discharged from the hospital and are dying for your own comforts of home but aren’t quite ready to be thrown in the deep-end yet with a new baby. You wish there was a place where you and your baby could be looked after, but that didn’t involve hospital food, and round the clock disturbances.

Well, Nick Balfour, father of four girls, has heard our cries and will be opening Mermaid Maternity on Kings Road this summer. Mermaid Maternity will offer state-of-the art accommodation and support services for women who are expecting and after they deliver. The retreat centre will offer birth preparation workshops, antenatal yoga, Pilates and exercise classes, nutritional guidance, and antenatal physiotherapy.

After the birth, Mermaid’s 14 maternity friendly bedrooms are the perfect place to recover and bond in beautiful surroundings, undisturbed by the outside world. Partners are welcome to stay and share those precious first few days and friends and family are also welcomed to visit.

All meals are served either in-room or in the welcoming restaurant / bar area, and are freshly prepared by chefs who work under the watchful eye of Mermaid’s nutritionists to ensure the food is both delicious and nutritionally balanced.

There is also a 24-hour supervised Baby Zone where baby will be expertly looked after while mum catches up on sleep or enjoys a treatment or class.

I wish Mermaid Maternity was around after my two babies were born!