Meeting the Confinement Lady

Before I start on my entry, I would like to disagree with what The Father has mentioned regarding confinement ladies in his previous post. What does he mean by "the good ones will be taken up because the 8-monther could have also called earlier and booked her too"? If two women knew they were giving birth in Aug, one called in Dec(as soon as she knew she was pregnant) compared to the other who called in Jan, won't the first one end up with the good Confinement Lady too? hmmmmmmmmmmmm........

Back to the main topic, we met our Confinement Lady, Serene on the 18th Feb, prepared a list of questions with a reference from Kenny's blog as we were a bit unsure of what to ask.. but we have to sound like we knew what we were doing:P Here is a reference of the questions we asked. Added some of the answers that were more appropriate for us. She was going to come from 9am-6pm daily so those questions abt staying overnight did not apply.

Questions to ask confinement lady

• How many years of experience as a confinement lady? 10 plus years.
• What food does she cook for the mother during the confinement period? Soup daily, red date drink, typical confinement food etc.
• What food does she cook for the father if he is around? Yes
• How many meals per day? 3, 6 or etc? What if the mother is hungry during teabreaks?
• Who is going to do the groceries? We have to buy the groceries. Not included in
• the salary. To prepare the groceries 2 wks before if possible
• Is she going to do household chores such as laundry, floor and kitchen? What chores will she do? She will mop the kitchen everyday and help clean the house once a week. She will help to do the laundry too on certain days if asked.
• Is she going to take care the baby? Of course, the answer should be yes. 8-) She will teach.
• How is she going to bath baby?
• How does she handle the umbilical cord? 1-3 weeks use antiseptic wipe
• How does she burp the baby?
• How is she going to take care when the baby cries? If baby cries at night, what is she going to do?
• Ask her about her experience in handling babies. Ask for examples.
• Must the baby sleep with her at night?
  
• If you are pro breastfeeding, can the baby sleep with you?
• Is she pro breastfeeding? Does she has any breastfeeding knowledge? Did shebreastfeed her kids?
• Is she able to guide the new mum on breastfeeding?
• Do we need to apply work permit for her?
• Do we need to buy her transport?
• What are her charges?
• What are the charges during holidays and non-holiday periods? For example, Chinese New Year?
• How much for the red packet before start work and after stark work? $20+ is recommended. Pay on the first day and last day.
• How does she handle conflicts if the mother disagree with her?
• Where can she sleep? Does she need a bed? Mattress will do?
• Payment by 3 installments. This is only applicable for those who are doing freelance.

Some advice she dispensed to us too:

• Drink coconut water one month before giving birth to prevent jaundice.
• Some types of food: Bai(2) guo (3), chng tng, white fungus, fu(4) zhu(2) tau ki, bird nest

Some things to prepare for:

A picture with Serene!