Guys...please share the CL name as you will help fellow forumers to avoid using the same useless Confinement Lady.

My wife just gave birth last Wednesday and we got a confinement lady recommended by my aunt....althought I wouldn't call it a disaster, but she did a few things that really pissed me and my wife off..From this experience, I concluded that we should always research and interview the Confinement lady prior to confirming her. A lot of these confinement ladies are not educated, from kampung and take pride in their YEARS of experience (YET some don't even know what the heck is sterilization before putting anything to baby's mouth!)

Her name is Mei Juan and she's from Segamat, Johor , in her 30s+ and charges RM3500 excluding ang pow. Sigh, don't know why my aunt recommend her...must be a friend or her friends I guess..silly me to simply accept without screening. I talked to her on the first day and she told me that she has not gone to school before and it was her first time coming to KL...and her previous experiences on the job is at Johor and Singapore. She also said she hates doing confinement for Singaporians because they're very particular...(In my heart I was like, I'm going to have the same expectation as the singaporian)


1. She likes to hold our baby with one hand, then use the other hand to hold the hot flask and make milk. We suspected that she accidentally pour a bit of hot water on her legs as our baby suddenly cried so loud but we when questioned her, she said it's the hot milk bottle that accidentally touched her. Once we saw her holding our baby to the kitchen to stir the food that she was cooking!!

2. Keep feeding baby with water although my wife breast feeds our baby. Our baby has jaundice (420+) and after the phototherapy, the doctor told us that we should keep feeding baby with breast milk and let her pass motion...but the confinement lady kept giving water to our baby which fills up our baby's stomach...
somemore when our baby was looking really yellow, the CL kept said it's normal...must bath the baby in yellow water (something that they sell in the chinese medicine shop) and drink more plain water.

3. She bought a white powder and wanted to feed our baby on the day 2. I asked her what's that and she said it's to prevent angin or colic. Then I saw her taking an unsterilized spoon and she mixed the powder with water with her fingers!! What the hell man....Tried to stop her but when it was too late when I realized she did that...

4. Cook something called "Huang Jiang Ji"...not sure what is that but sure looks like curry chicken to me! and it's damn spicy.....can someone in confinement eat super spicy stuff? Please correct me if my understanding is wrong......new papa here..

5. Didn't wash the milk bottle properly after each use...when I open up the bottle I could still smell milk in there....so end up I have to wash it again...

6. My wife has been pumping and storing breast milk, and it's not easy task and every ounce is precious...then everytime she will tell us to heat up an amount that our baby cannot finish! We knew that our baby can only drink 2 ounces, and if sometimes when she's really hungry, we will top up abit by making 1 ounce of formula milk because we didn't have enough breast milk back then...now as the breast milk production increases, we store more ounces and the confinement lady asked us to use up everything in one storage....and if baby cannot finish it, she said put back the bottle in the fridge!! Can we keep back "contaminated" milk in the fridge for later consumption?


Having said that, generally she's quite a nice person and helpful....but I guess she's used to doing things with her methods she used in kampung which I find it quite unacceptable (especially putting unsterilized spoon into her mouth on baby's 2nd day after birth) ....We're counting down to her last day and we'll bid her good bye!
When we have our 2nd child, we will not use any more confinement lady...better I gao dim myself since I'm used to doing house chores anyway!

This post has been edited by justin_nys: Oct 8 2011, 11:21 AM

yes unfortunately...Years of experience is imortant but that's not everything..what's more important is the CL's personality,attitude and ability to communicate to set the right expectation with the customer...not just doing things with pride because it's the "BEST" way or that's "MY" WAY while playing dumb thinking they know everything

If people are going back to her for the 2nd and 3rd child, she must be damn good!

how irresponsible and I can imagine how much inconvenience she has caused you and your wife....well look at the bright side, if she's irresponsible and can do this to you, what else she will do to your precious baby? hope you can get back your deposit....

I suggest TS to compile a list of recommended and blacklisted confinement lady on the first post for easy reference...

Another horroric CL.... :S Same as mine...all the pots and pans rosak especially the Tefal coating ones.....damn it
happylife_v_apple , you shouldn't have paid her the extra RM100!! Consdering she destoyed all the expensive kitchen wares and she broke her agreement of RM3200 CL fee!

Another Confinement Lady horror story....sends chill to my spine as you reminded me of ours ...lol
Anyway, let bygones be bygones....don't let it affect your mood and enjoy your new born