The thoughts of a confinement nanny
Being a confinement nanny is not easy, you are in fact being paid one salary for 3 jobs and on mid-night shifts for consecutive 28-days. Newborn is not like adult, able to sleep through the nights, they may wake up several times a nights, for diaper change/night feeds/sleepless etc. The confinement nanny has to coax the newborn all night, with lots of love and patience. And everyday in the day, confinement nanny has to cook confinement meals for mommy, prepare meals for daddy when he’s at home, prepare herbal bath, brew daily tonics, laundry care for baby (handwash if necessary), laundry for mommy/daddy, basic housework like sweeping and mopping floor, cleaning up the kitchen after every cooking, grocery shopping if necessary and as and when, attend to newborn’s needs 24hours. It is not like what other’s think – help to cook and carry baby only. Every newborn is different, some may take a longer time to fall asleep, some may only sleep in the day and awake at night, so confinement nanny has to follow the timing of the newborn.
Confinement period is to let new moms rest as much as possible during the 28-days, help to build up your milk supply and adapt to your newborn baby. Newborn also need time to adapt to the new environment (out from mommy’s cosy womb) as well as learn to feed, sleep and excrement. So confinement nanny is here to help as much as she can. Help you to set up a proper milk feed/sleep time system so that you can follow once confinement period ends.
We do encourage employers to build a good communication with the nannies so that she will know what will you be expecting so that she can better perform in her duties and chores.
Sometime ago, we have read about Bad confinement nannies. To be able to work as a confinement nanny, one must have the love, patience and passion in caring for the newborn. One must have the knowledge in what to cook for confinement meals, and one must have the experiences in caring for newborn.
Freelance confinement nannies
For some employers who engaged freelance confinement nannies, you must do your due diligence in checking their background. i.e. 1) How many years of experiences (in malaysia or singapore) because we have slightly different confinement practices. For Singaporean mommies, we prefer to breastfeed & hygienic is very important when handling newborns. 2) Where did they learn their confinement training from? 3) How many kids do they have 4) What languages do they speak and what was she working as prior to becoming a confinement nanny 5) Do they know what herbs to cook from Day 1 to Day 28? (Test their knowledge by asking what kind of soup to increase breastmilk, what kind of soup as daily tonics, and what are the benefits of eating certain type of confinement dishes 6) Can they handle night feeds? 7) Are they following traditional or modern confinement 8) Would they be able to help out more (easy-going or not) if needed
Usually freelance confinement nannies goes by referrals, meaning one customer refer to his/her friend. In our opinion, sometimes confinement nanny works different for different families. What suits your friends may not suits you because there is no one size fits all nanny. The confinement nanny must be able to blend in with your family structure too. That is why at STAR Confinement we help you to do match-making to the most suitable nanny according to your needs and requirements.
For freelance confinement nannies, you must take note, unlike agency nannies, they do not have a strict code of conduct to follow.
Also, some freelance confinement nannies will take employers to “save money” on work permit but do you know the penalty for failing to have a valid work pass for confinement nanny? Read here: http://www.mom.gov.sg/ and for government levy you can pay here https://www.cpf.gov.sg/members
And what happens if your freelance nannies only have 14-days of valid stay in Singapore when you engaged her for 28-days? Find out more here: https://www.ica.gov.sg/
Agency confinement nannies
For agency confinement nannies, we will always be answerable to our customers. Unlike freelance confinement nannies, if an emergency crops up at home, they needed to leave immediately with no replacement or they will just ask any friends to stand-in for them. As for agencies like us, we will always be answerable to our customers, replacement if not suitable and we will match accordingly to your requirements. We also have a strict code of conduct to follow and our nannies are make sure they are of good attitude and with good experiences. We want to build by trust and faith, we will always listen to customers if they have any feedback and we are constantly working to improve our services for our customers.
We look forward to pampering you soon!
