As I shared in my previous post about my bad experience with a confinement lady, I would like to also suggest some pointers for you to note when looking for a confinement lady.
What are some different types of confinement ladies?
There are 2 main categories.
1. Stay over
This is what the majority would do because most new parents are very tired and need a good night sleep. Hence the confinement lady would be the one feeding and changing the baby during the night feeds.
It is also easier to find stay over confinement ladies as many of them are Malaysians. They would prefer to stay over rather than looking for another place to stay.
2. Day Confinement
These confinement ladies are mainly locals who prefers to return home after 6PM.
They will prepare for you lunch and dinner, and help you feed, bath, change the baby.
What are some things you can request a confinement lady do?
- Take care of newborn baby's needs. (Feeding, changing, bathing)
- Take care of mother's needs (3 meals, prepare drinks, tonic and bathing water)
- Do marketing for the ingredients of your meals
- Cleaning the house (depends on the size of the house)
- Washing of clothes of baby and mummy
What to take note?
1. Look for a Confinement Lady ONCE your gynae have confirmed that you are pregnant. Good CLs get booked very quickly.
2. Every CL has different terms and habits. Make sure you discuss the details with them before you confirm taking on their service. eg. whether she can clean the house, cook for your husband, go marketing etc.
3. Different CL are different in their pricing. Some confinement ladies will ask for more money if you request for her to cook for your husband. In my case, I paid the 2nd confinement lady extra to cook for me.
4. Every confinement lady has their specialty. Some CLs are great cooks and became famous because of that. Others may be well-known for being good at handling babies. Be clear on what is more important to you.
5. Check with the CLs what are the confinement food that they are good at preparing. As every dialect group has their own type of confinement food, do inform them what you like and check if they can prepare that for you.
6. Let the CLs known how you want her to take care of your baby. Some CLs get angry if your make requests because they think they are experienced.
7. Have a good chat with the confinement lady before confirming. Best is to meet up the person because this person is going to stay with you for a month. You won't want to regret it.
8. Hiring CLs through agencies will be more expensive, but you have security because you can change the CLs if you are not confortable with the one they arranged for you.
9. If you finally decide that you only need someone to prepare for you confinement food, you can consider alternatives like catering confinement food. It will be much cheaper as well.
10. Point number 10 is added by my wife. hahahaa...
Kaye: It is always better to hire a CL rather than getting your mother or MIL to help you do confinement. You will be terribly tired and the last thing you want to think about is your relationships with your mum or mil.
Hope this helps!
Do let me know if you can think of other pointers and I will add them in. :)
Have a happy and restful confinement!
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