Following my earlier posting about my planned visits to confinement centres, Hubby and I managed to squeeze in the remainder of centres over the last few days. Super tiring but enlightening. I will write more about them in individual postings because I don't think I can cover them all. Today I will write about Moms2b or they are also known under the brand name Mom's Paradise. They are part of the Daveleen Group of companies that also have other services like a beauty centre that offers pre and post natal massages as well a confinement meals catering.
I was quite excited to view the place as I had received a recommendation from my mother-in-law and had read some write ups on some blogs about the place and their services. However the write ups were mainly about some of their events like Mother's Day celebration and their products like Moon's Pre Natal and Post Natal Essential. I also saw some photos online and thought that they looked pretty decent. Not to mention that their website was quite informative and easy to navigate. You can check out their website from this link below:-
http://www.moms2b.com/
When we arrived at the bungalow on SS2/3 PJ, we were quite impressed as the place looked well kept and the signs were very prominent along the main road. Once again I did not take photos! Arrgh...blame it on morning sickness and prenancy hormones. (Ha ha ha, how convenient...) Anyway, since I didn't take any photos I will concentrate on what we experienced.
My verdict: I left angry at the sales person and completed appalled at what I had experienced and learned about the centre.
It was a rather sizable bungalow and it had a beautifully landscaped outdoor area. We entered the main door and there was about 2 people or so sitting. We were greeted by a lady who spoke in really fast and fluent Mandarin. Unfortunately I am a banana and my chinese in general works only for ordering food and basic communication. So I told her that I don't speak mandarin, we were here to find out more about the confinement centre and that I had initially spoken to a person name Jessie. She then asked us to have a seat and wait for a moment.
We waited and finally when she was done with another couple, she approached us and introduced herself as Jessie. She seemed pleasant enough and I sat down with her at the table while she started showing me a file that had information and pictures of the confinement centre. Hubby was looking after Chapati as he was playing around on one of the sofas.
The first thing that really annoyed me was when I asked her about the Chinese New Year surcharge. I just wanted to understand how it worked as bump's EDD is 3rd February 2016 but according to the doctors I could deliver anytime from the 13th of January 2016 onwards. First she mentioned it could be pro-rated if we stayed a few days into their CNY period, then after that she said more than a few days she would have to charge it in full, then when I asked her how many days, she says two or three days...on the whole I still couldn't really understand what the real policies are on the surcharge. So I asked her again and this time very specific questions which I will detail below:-
Q1: When does the surcharge actually start?
A1: (She then showed me a picture of their CNY periods which I was finally clear about.) It starts on the 24th of January 2016 and the surcharge is RM2300
Q2: Then I asked her, what happens if I deliver on the 13th of January, how will the surcharge apply? Will it apply in whole? Or will it apply partially?
A2: (I paraphrase here because I can't really recall her exact words) Ok, if you don't want to pay the surcharge then you can leave the centre earlier.
Q3: I then repeated my above question again because she did not answer my questions.
A3: Believe it or not she once again in a louder and slightly arrogant voice gave me the same answer as above.
By that time, I was a little annoyed so I told her, what I really want to know is how the surcharge works, which she then started to answer me again about how I could avoid paying the CNY surcharge. I finally got louder and said please answer my question, as I am now aware how not to pay the surcharge however, I still don't understand how the surcharge works. By that time, I turned to hubby with my angry face and she then started speaking in Cantonese to Hubby which cause me to get angrier, mind you I told her before that I did not speak Chinese very well.
She finally clarified that as long my stay falls within that period, the surcharge will apply which was what I wanted confirmation from the beginning. By that time, my patience was already wearing thin however, there were still a lot of other important questions. I found out the following:-
- The actual centre is located at another location nearby the office.
- The people who looks after your baby at night are confinement nannies/maids who looked foreign and not qualified/reqistered nurses.
- At night, mummies are required to surrender their babies to the confinement ladies at 10.30 pm until 8 am the next morning. (This one sounded like you don't see your baby at all from 10.30 pm until 8 the next morning. Which I thought sounded a little unreasonable, after all that is YOUR baby...but I didn't bother to clarify)
- If breast feeding, they do not allow you to direct latch your baby at all during that time (10.30 pm - 8 am) in your room. You can pump your milk and the nannies will feed your baby. (This one I believe is a little bit of ignorance and maybe tradition? How much milk can you pump during your first week?)
- When I told her that usually a new mummy would not have so much milk to pump during the first week and usually the best way they baby can get breast milk is by direct latching, her answer was really practiced and glib "oh you have to bring your own milk formula so that the nannies can feed your baby" (This one I understand because not everyone believes that babies grow best on breast milk. But this is what I want for MY baby)
- When I asked if there was any option at all for me to breast feed my baby directly, her only answer was that their rules and policies had to be followed. One of the reasons was that if the baby cries at night, it will disturb other mummies who are staying there. (This one I cannot understand because I thought we had our own rooms?)
- The centre was a little dark and most of the rooms did not seem to have natural lighting.
- The beds were single only and didn't look comfortable at all.
- Lastly what annoyed me most was the fact that after our question and answer exchange, the sales person continued to speak in Cantonese and addressed everything to Hubby!
Lessons learnt!
You really cannot judge a book by its cover. The office looked decent and extremely well done up but the centre itself was a disappointment. I can't imagine being locked up there for 30 days...like jail.
A personal site visit is really really really IMPORTANT. My mother-in-law told me that they did not allow her to visit the actual centre, (
I wonder why?)
The sales person can really make or break your business, she was loud, didn't listen to her customers and didn't answer her customers questions directly. Hubby and I felt the same, she was just arrogant and gave us the impression that our business was not important to them because there was a long line of other people waiting to snap up their rooms. (
Which may be the truth but I certainly would not be one of them!)
Ask and ask and ask questions until you are clear, after all you are going to be paying them nearly RM10k (that's a lot of money!) and it's your baby, your health and happiness when you decide to stay with them. Don't let some overtly loud and arrogant sales person stop you from finding out what to expect when using their services.
Always compare service
providers. This experience
was vastly different from my earlier viewing and my expectations were a little
high after reading stuff about their events, seeing their nicely appointed
office and my mother-in-law who also visited their office but did not see
the actual centre.
To end it all different
people have different needs and I guess that this place just doesn’t suit my
needs whilst other people might be ok with it. It is fairly common for babies
to be left with the confinement ladies during the night so that new mothers get
to sleep and recover. As for me I get nervous not seeing my baby for that long.
I found some photos online thanks to blogger jacsafterparty for putting up quite a comprehensive collection of it.
http://www.jacsafterparty.com/2013/07/daveleen-women-health-beauty.html
The photos were taken in 2013 and the facilities has deteriorated since then. I really hope that the centre improves their services and facilities. After all they seemed to have garnered quite good publicity before and their founder seems to have very good experience.
Blog update 17th August 2015
I realised that I forgot to include the price information that I have on the centre so I am doing a quick update here.
- The rooms rates are from RM 8179 (standard), RM 9455 (superior), RM 10520 (deluxe) which are approximately 34%-37% discount from their original prices of RM 12,628, RM 14,420 and RM 16,660
- Down payment to confirm the booking is 30% of the price
