Unlike my previous two times confinement whereby my mother came to my house and stay with me doing all the confinement lady's work for me, I went to a confinement center after delivering my third baby this year (2017). Hiring a confinement lady was not within my consideration as I have another two young children at home who I imagine, will demand for my attention hence making me exhausted during confinement.
After researching around online, I visited Bellemom Confinement Centre in Puchong which was located in between my house and hubby's working place and decided to have my confinement there. They are charging RM8k plus per stay(28 days- start counting from the day you checked in). The price including a confinement lady dedicated just for you and your baby, a single room with bed, table and sofa, 5 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, tea break, dinner and supper), free laundry service, free one time massage for mummy, one pack of pampers for new born, a box of Chinese medicine (So Hup pills), and a pack of sanitary pad for mummy. Besides, you don't have to bring any baby cloths when you checked in here as they have plenty of babies cloths sharing among all the babies.
This year, the cost for hiring a confinement lady has risen to around RM4000-RM6000 depending on area and the popularity of the confinement lady. My neighbor who had delivered a baby around the same time as I did had hired a confinement lady at RM4300 for instance while I happen to know a confinement lady who get paid RM6000 plus per confinement including ang pow.
The cost for staying in a confinement centre in Malaysia varied from RM 6000-RM15,000. This again depends on area and popularity. Below are pro and cons staying in a confinement centre from my point of view:
Bellemom Confinement Centre Puchong
I love the rooms set up in this confinement centre. They were clean, bright and comfortable to stay (although some mummy did complained that the bed is not comfortable). There are altogether 5 rooms in the confinement centre. One room is spared for mummy who check in earlier or later than the predicted date. A door bell was placed inside each room for mummy to call for her nanny. Besides, each room has a TV with Astro programs. Alas that I do not enjoy watching TV :).
This is an example of how lunch and dinner were served. Every lunch or dinner came with a meat, a soup and a vegetables. The soup served were mostly herbal soup (rotating). For breakfast, normally we were served with either bread with fried egg and cheese plus ham, misua soup, fried rice, fried noodles or porridge while thong sui (either double boiled raw papaya, pear, sweet potato or red bean) was served for tea break. As for supper, it was simple supper with Milo plus varieties of biscuits or sometimes steam bread. However, on the 4th week, double boiled herbal wine with black chicken will be served every two days as supper.
I like the hospital baby cot that they have in this confinement centre as young babies get to sleep well in it. We can also incline the cot to prevent baby from chocking while sleeping.
Walkway outsides the room was nicely decorated with wall sticker. A small fridge was provided for mummy to store their breast milk pumped temporarily.
A small room was partitioned for bathing and changing baby downstairs, next to baby room where all nannies and babies stay. If you prefer, you may let your nanny to fully take care of your baby day and night and only ask her to bring the baby to you when you want to see him or her. You can also ask nanny to bring the baby for your to latch directly during each feed.
Overall I was quite satisfied with my confinement there except that the food was slightly below my expectation as the food quality is dependent on nannies who cook them. Besides, I was over-pampered with the good food which my mother who used to cook for me in my previous confinement I guess :). The good thing is that I have recovered well staying in the confinement centre with the rest and food obtained. On top of this, I have slimmed down to fit into my jeans before pregnancy again!
Tips to stay in a confinement centre:
1. Bring more cloths to spare especially when it was rainy season
2. Bring your own supplement, chicken essence, DOM etc to get better food during confinement
3. Bring your breast pump, milk storage bottles and start storing some breast milk if you are going to breastfeed your baby and start working later.
4. Talk to the operator if you are unhappy about anything including their service or food served to improve it together. Don't just keep it for yourself.
