Confinement Lady

Caroline and Auntie Ah Mei

Yea!! finally I got a green light from the doctor to go fly back home. Life is too bored here. I am so used with my busy life before that I often dazed around when there is nothing to do. (beside helping my confinement lady around).

I am so blessed that I have a good, kind and helpful confinement lady. Her name is Auntie Ah Mei. Beside helping me taking care of the baby (that includes bathing, feeding, and accompanying Caroline sleep), she cooks for me too. And most of the time, she is the one who accompany when I am bored. She tells me stories of her working experience, teaching me how to take care of Caroline, but I think I depend her too much. She is going to stay with till early October, and after that I need to find a nanny to take care of Caroline; knowing that it is not an easy task anymore to find a good nanny in Indonesia, I was hoping Auntie Ah Mei will keep staying with us until Caroline gets older.

In case still wondering what exactly a confinement lady does...I got some information about confinement from a website..so here it goes:

Many ethnic Chinese women in Malaysia hire a pui yuet (literally "companion for the month" in Cantonese) to help out in the postnatal period immediately after birth. Also known as a confinement nanny or confinement lady, a pui yuet is usually an older woman experienced in caring for the special needs of a new mum and newborn baby according to the traditional confinement practices of the Chinese. Usually, she is an acknowledged expert in Chinese postnatal practices.

Although some women find confinement nannies or confinement ladies to be old-fashioned in their approach to the dos and don'ts of the postnatal period, they can be particularly helpful to a first-time mum who may not be familiar with various aspects ofcaring for a newborn baby.

What will she do?

Traditionally, the pui yuet's duties include:

• Bathing baby daily.

• Feeding baby (once breastfeeding is well-established, you can express breastmilk so that she can take over one or more night feeds).

• Generally caring for the baby so that the new mother can rest.

• Cook special confinement dishes such as traditional chicken soup which are considered extra-nutritious. In smaller households (especially if it is just you and your husband), it is not unreasonable to ask the pui yuet to cook all the regular meals.

• Wash the baby and the new mother's clothes (if you prefer to just toss everything into the machine, that is acceptable too).

Few confinement ladies or confinement nannies these days are expected to do other household chores - though they should always clean up the kitchen and dishes after meals. The older and more traditional ladies will be used to doing some light housework.