Confinement Centre Viewings - Care Nanny Malaysia

Hubby and I have been thinking about plans for when baby #2 arrives. Bump is already showing at 14 weeks. (Probably because I am bloated...) I don't remember showing so obviously with Chapati. Anyway, back to confinement plans. When Chapati was born, confinement was done in my parents apartment as they had two adjoining units. They lived in one and I stayed in the other. Before actually staying there we though that it was ideal because we would still have our own space and they could visit as often as they liked. Of course, it came with it's own challenges which I will save for later so this time around we thought that home might be best. The problem with having children later in life is that our home was renovated to accommodate us (Hubby and I and our stuff) and over the years, it has filled with just "us" stuff and accommodating a confinement lady and a new baby is going to be really tough...plus baby#2 might arrive just before CNY and I shudder to think of how much I am going to have to pay the confinement lady excluding food. Hence, confinement homes may be just the solution for us.

Asked Mr Google and voila! A list came out...albeit a slightly disappointing list. Found blogs about confinement and but very few said anything about confinement centres or their experiences with the centres.

Anyway I selected a few that looked promising and proceeded to send them all email enquiries. Most responded very quickly. The list that I decided to check out is as follows:-

Care Nanny Malaysia
http://carenanny.com.my/

Mom's Paradise Postnatal Retreat (Part of the Daveleen group)
http://www.moms2b.com/

Gina's Place
http://ginaspostnatal.blogspot.com/

Serenity Confinement Centre
http://www.serenity.my/


I then happily managed to confirm my first viewing  at the Care Nanny Confinement Centre. When we arrived at the location of the bungalow in Subang Jaya we just a teeny tiny bit disappointed that the garden was bare (we expected the place to be landscaped) It was clean and tidy though with little trees growing along the fence. We were then greeted by a very pleasant and jolly nurse who started to show us around whilst Carmen (the person with whom we had made an appointment with) would arrive shortly. We were pleasantly surprised that the centre was better than what we had envisioned from the outside. It had a new and homely kind of feeling. The kind that you have when you just move into a new house. It was also spacious and when we asked, we realised that the centre had just opened in the last one month! When Carmen arrived we started asking her a barrage of questions simply because we had never had any experience with a confinement centre before and she patiently explained and answered our questions. Hubby and I had a few things that we felt were important to us and we found out the following:-

1) Breastfeeding - Chapati was exclusively breastfed until he was 16 months old. When I got preggy with baby#2 and had horrible morning sickness I then had to supplement him with formula. So wanting the same for baby#2 it was important that I had the kind of support that I didn't quite have with Chapati. Brownie Point No. 1 the nurses will actually help you if you want to fully breastfeed your baby even at night. However Carmen did mention that they encourage the mummies to get more rest so they recommend that we leave the baby with the nurses during the night and resume direct latch the next morning. I however made it clear that I would like to direct latch my baby for the first month and would prefer that he or she is not out of my sight for more than 2 hours. (A little paranoid considering some of the horror stories you hear about caregivers)

2)  Brownie point no. 2 the people actually caring for the baby and mothers are qualified nurses. For me it was good that I had a choice in whether I wanted to subject baby#2 to some old customs and traditions...like rubbing their backs with flour and then giving them a shave...(aiya that is what happened with Chapati and didn't understand what was happening until it was all over)

3) Brownie point no. 3 the place is a new centre so everything still looks good, clean, new and even the beds looked quite comfortable. The best past was I told that Care Nanny has already another centre running in Puchong so they are experienced and know what to expect.

4) We brought Chapati with us and the nurse seem to like children because she wanted to play with him and carry him. (This is important if you are working with babies and children)

5) All the rooms had windows and natural light with the exception of the cheapest one.

6) The confinement duration is 30 days and not the usual 28 days.

7) They also allow hubby to stay if he wants and provides 1 meal for him.

8) They had rooms from RM 7,888- RM 12,888 and their opening promotion was if we decided to sign up and pay the deposit we would get RM 500 off the room price.

9) Brownie point no.4 the CNY surcharge was only 15% of the total price which we both thought was reasonable because when we thought of having to pay the confinement lady double salary...(anyway you get the picture) This was only applicable from the 27th of January onwards.

10) Finally we asked about the deposit and what happens to our deposit in the event something unforeseen happens. (Choi - choi) This was the only part that had some grey areas...ie..."we can talk to management....etc". Their initial deposit was a little steep though at 50% of room price. NOTE TO SELF: Clarify this point if we decide on their confinement centre.

Their photos are available on their website and it is a pretty accurate depiction of the place. (no Photoshop :))    http://carenanny.com.my/our-services/accommodation-facilities/

So went our first viewing and I must say we were both pleasantly surprised. The prospect of going to a confinement home finally did seem viable after all. I am excited to see and compare the other centres before finally making a decision.

Lastly Brownie point no. 5 is that they also provide confinement food catering services for 30 days with no delivery charge. That might also be something to think about...

I will be going for more visits asap as we have to make a decision very quickly. Confinement centre rooms are a little like the confinement ladies...they get booked up pretty quickly.