I sort of make up my mind to engage a confinement lady once I know I am pregnant.
Reason why I didn’t seek the elderly’s help:
- I wish myself to have the confinement in an environment where I feel most comfortable
- I do not wish to trouble the elderly to struggle between taking care of baby and helping me to cook … and knowing them, they will struggle to keep my house clean too
- Reduce any risk in conflict due to difference in opinion – especially the way we handle baby these days is definitely different from 30+ years ago.
So I heard about some experiences from friends, and also went through some forum to learn more about ‘job scope’ of confinement lady (CL). I am still blur till now, but I managed to come up with a list of questions I would like to know the ‘working requirement & style’ of a CL.
Questions I asked:
- How much is your rate per month? How many days do you consider as ‘a month’?
- Do you need work permit?
- How many years of confinement lady experience do you have?
- Are you able to help to guide me & hubby on showering the baby? Breastfeeding? Change diaper?
- Do you know how to do post natal massage?
- Can you cook for my hubby? Are you able to cook different dishes for him?
- Will you be able to help with the housework, e.g. laundry?
- What is your ‘staying requirement’? Are you able to sleep on mattress on floor or do you need a bed – as I don’t have a bed yet, I need to know if I need to buy one? Can you survive with fan or do you need air-con – my concern is I scare the baby will catch cold if on air con most of the time (read from forum a CL let a baby fall sick and the parents need to send baby to hospital and paid a fat $3k hospital bill)?
And I got 3 contacts from J, all from Malaysia, whom lazy me decided to just select from one of them. 😛 Why not from forum? Because I understand some reviews can be posted by the CL themselves, and a few who seem really good, had their name mentioned few years ago, and I am not confident that I can get them.
By the way, in case if you are not aware, the demand rate for CL is amazingly as high as infant care/childcare center in Singapore, slight slower and you might not be able to engage the ‘preferred CL’ you would like. I’m into my 3.5 months when I was looking for one, but I was told that a lot have assignments till end of the year already (means they ‘booked’ the CL on their second month!!).
Back to my CL hunt. From these 3 CL, I get the following answers:
- SGD$2500 – SGD$2700, a month is usually 28 days, longer than that will be prorated accordingly. (By the way, one is supposed to give them a ‘start work ang bao’ and the ‘closure ang bao’, these can easily add to another SGD$150 – $300, or more)
- Depending on if their permit have expired since they last renewed it. It will cost another SGD$120 if I am not wrong
- One of them is 7 years, the other 2 have more than 10 years experience (and yah, they are the one who demand higher amount)
- Yes of course (Stupid question right?)
- No (a bit disappointed as I read from forum, there are really a few of them who can do post natal massage, but really… FEW)
- Yes, can cook, But all 3 will expect the hubby eat what the wifey eat. (I sort of predict G will start eating outside before he got home or da bao most of the days. Seriously, I understand the confinement food will be too heaty for normal people intake @_@)
- One of them mop the kitchen floor every day, the other 2 say maybe once or twice a week. As for laundry, one say she will handwash baby clothings but all adult clothings will be in washing machine, the other 2 will machine wash everything.
- One say she will prefer bed, one is neutral, one keep asking me don’t waste money and buy bed just for her one month stay. All 3 are fine with fan, perhaps it because of my reason why I worry about the air con, and also because year end is still quite cooling.
Guess which CL did I engaged?
The one who is still available for a face-to-face talk after 4 days consideration. @_@
Yah, Be kiasu and snatch the CL while stock last.
I got to meet the CL and have a face to face chat with her, she is really chatty, The feeling is still ok, and we proceed to make the deposit.
Wish me luck during my confinement, will update again if I have the energy~
Good Luck to ya!
Thanks Dear~
hi! do you mind sharing the contact of your confinement lady?
Hi, you can contact Yuexin Auntie on 83133598 or +60169627156.
She is currently in Singapore for an assignment.
Hi, how is your experience with Yuexin Auntie?
Hi Serene, I find her generally ok – quite willing to cook and do simple housework, but it took me a while to get used to her and her chatty character (at times she upset me cos she say the wrong thing to my in law, but may be cos I was more sensitive then). Also, you need to let her know specifically on what you want/likes, sometimes she assume on things but I didn't condemn her cos I too lazy to tell her.
My friends SIL likes her a lot and the other family who engaged her praised her a lot too when I go to pass her the deposit, so I guess it depends on individual chemistry.
Thank you for your reply. 😉
Few questions:
– Did she know what to cook on a daily basis or did she expect you to tell her what to do?
– Is she good in herbs, tonic soups etc?
– Does she support breastfeeding? I have heard of stories where CL was lazy and told mummies to feed formula milk powder.
Thank you!
HI, Answers to your questions:
– I usually leave it up to her to decided. You can find some of the food she cooked on my FB album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1103307246346089.1073741857.100000004724562&type=1&l=f183f7340f. I have friends who dropped by my house and she cook for them too, so far 1 friend say her cooking is good and 1 friend say hers is so-so (compared to their CL) so I guess her cooking is mid-range?
– I am not sure about "good" but she know how to double boil chick essence soup and usually cook a tonic soup for me every night
– She claim she support breastfeeding but for my case, I was encourage to feed formula milk at night and breastfeed in day time. Actual fact is SOMETIMES in day time, she also feed baby formula. But she did massage for me to clear the block duct once and keep asking me to drink to improve my milk flow.
Thank you very much! It definitely helps alot especially for new mom-to-be like me! Cheers! 😉
Hi, do you mind sharing the rate you paid for Auntie Yuexin?
Thanks,
J
Hi, I paid her $2.7k in 2015, but she told me her rate for 2016 is $3k
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Thanks for sharing. That's more than 10% increase!
I was also told that she's very pro-breastfeeding by a friend who recommended her but reading your comments above, I'm hesitant about engaging her now… @_@
Is this your first baby/first time engage a CL? In my opinion you can still go with her but just be clear on what you want and expectation. Few possibility why my experience is different from fren might be:
– I was sleeping with hubby & bb with her so she dun wan keep coming into our room
– I was really clueless then on how to lay & feed + appear tired (due to my age?)
– I didn't think much water do CL not confident of my output?
– baby is constantly hungry all the time! (myth say cos I control my diet during pregancy thus baby come out tiam jiak)
She's quite a "chin cai" lady and if you also "chin cai", can just go with her