After the delivery of her baby, most Malaysian mothers will go into confinement, at home or recently confinement centres become a new trend. Post-natal month is the period where moms will take lots of rest, and follows a set of rules according to her culture and family traditions.
This can include a special diet, and for stricter practitioners, there may be no showering or washing of hair or exposure to fans and cold water, and even the baby may be taken off the mother’s hands to enable her to fully recuperate.
Confinement Centres
Confinement centres used to be the last option, due to the traditional way of confinement where women’s mothers or mother in law takes on the tasks of confinement or confinement ladies can also be hired to come stay and help out full-time at home. But these days, with many young couples living away from their family and in condominiums, the option of live-in help becomes a bit less practical.
Enter the confinement center. Catering to mothers who don’t have the space for stay-home confinement nannies, these places are a home away from home that take care of a mother’s confinement needs. Some luxury post-natal confinement centres charge up to RM13,000 for a luxurious room complete with air conditioning, king-sized bed, baby cot, flat screen television, CD player, mini-fridge and even a safe. Mothers are served organic meals and enjoy post-natal massages while eight nurses take care of them and their babies.
New rules for post-natal care centres
However, news recently broke that post-natal confinement care centres which do not offer medical facilities must register with the Welfare Department or risk being shut down, said Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun, the Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development.
This was a decision made at a post-Cabinet meeting two weeks ago following the case of a 10-month-old baby who was abused in a confinement care centre in Cheras, which doubled as a children’s nursery.
That confinement care centre has been shut down and investigations are being carried out.
“It had always been a grey area with confinement care centres as we were not sure if they should be under our ministry or the Health Ministry.
“However, we have now decided that centres without medical facilities should be registered with the Welfare Department.
“This is to ensure services provided to new mothers are safe and of the highest quality,” Chew concluded.
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Confinement myths busted
