Confinement Centres, Confinement Nannies, Or DIY Postpartum Care?
Is it worth splurging a 5-digit sum on confinement centres, or will it be better to engage a confinement nanny to assist you in your own home? And for new parents who cannot afford additional help, is it possible to DIY your own confinement?
By Dawn Cher -
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As a new mother, it can seem daunting when it comes to handling all the different arrangements after you have given birth. Aside from preparing the child’s nursery and essentials for their arrival, you will also need to plan for your own confinement needs and postpartum recovery.
What if we could simply pay to outsource all of these arrangements?
Thanks to the rising demand for such services, confinement centres have sprung up in Singapore over the last few years. There are now at least 15 postpartum confinement centres in Singapore, whereas there were none in the early 2000s and before.
Confinement centres
If you choose to do your confinement at a confinement centre, all of your basic needs will be taken care of, typically including but not limited to:
- Confinement meals
- Herbal soups, drinks and bath water
- Lactation consultations and/or massage
- Postnatal recovery massage and/or jamu wraps
- Baby care - feeding, bathing, changing, umbilical cord care, jaundice care, etc
Some centres offer additional wellness or pampering sessions, such as salon hair washes, facial treatments, spa or aesthetic treatments, and more. Others even include treatments for diastasis recti, postpartum hair loss, or even newborn photography services!
The costs range from $15,888 to $29,000 for a full 28-day stay, although some centres such as The Clover Suites have an option for a shorter stay at $8,888 for 14 days as well.
Interestingly, these days, it is no longer just the rich spending on confinement centres. Singjoy, which has been operating confinement centre services at Shangri-La Apartments since 2018, said that they recently opened a second branch at Havelock due to rising demand from middle-income clients.
Confinement nannies
Another popular option that many new parents in Singapore go for is to engage a live-in confinement nanny, either via confinement agencies or through word-of-mouth referrals. If you choose to hire a nanny directly by yourself, you will need to ensure you settle all the relevant paperwork - including a work permit - to bring her in.
Confinement nannies are typically experienced in postpartum care and help with preparing confinement meals, caring for the newborn, offering support on breastfeeding, washing your milk bottles and breast pump parts, and doing laundry for mother and baby.
| Item | Cost | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Confinement nanny fee | $3,500 - $5,000 | Depends on how popular your nanny is.Additional fees if you give birth to twins, or over festive periods such as Chinese New Year. |
| Customary red packets | $88 - $588 | Depends on your generosity. |
| Work Permit Application Fee | $35 | |
| Foreign Worker Levy | $60 | |
| Insurance | $100 onwards | Optional |
| Groceries / Marketing | $100 - $200 a week | For nanny to cook your confinement meals. Depends on how luxurious you want your meals to be (e.g. having cod fish more frequently will cost you more) |
| Nanny’s meals and utilities | Varies | |
| Total cost | $5,000 and up |
You will still need to pay separately for your confinement herbs, postnatal massages or any lactation massage sessions that you need, so do factor that into your budget.
Personally, my husband and I chose to go with a confinement nanny on both occasions when I gave birth, so that our household could learn some tips from the nanny and be more equipped to take over when the nanny leaves.
Do-it-yourself confinement
For the adventurous (or families on a tight budget), it is also possible to do your own confinement without hiring external help. Here’s a useful guide to help you get started.
If you have family members who are willing to help with the baby and household chores while you recuperate, this may be a viable option. Some couples get their parents to help cook confinement meals daily for the new mother, whereas others prefer to book from a confinement caterer instead.
Here are some other services you may want to arrange for your confinement:
| Confinement food(lunch and dinner for 28 days) | $1,600 - $2,400 |
|---|---|
| Confinement herbs(drinks, soups and baths) | $500 - $800 |
| Postnatal massage and/or jamu wrap | $120 - $250 per session |
| Lactation massage | $80 - $180 per session |
| Lactation consultations | $100 - $280 per session |
How do the costs stack up?
As you can imagine, how much you’ll end up actually spending in confinement can vary by a large margin.
For instance, one of my friends frequently suffered from mastitis due to an oversupply of breast milk, and ended up spending several thousands of dollars on lactation consultants to correct her breastfeeding techniques and breast massages to remove the lumps every other day.
But by excluding all of these outlier cases, here’s a rough estimate of how the costs compare across all 3 options:
| DIY | Confinement nannies | Confinement centres |
|---|---|---|
| $2,000 - $3,000 | $3,500 - $5,000(higher if you have twins or deliver over festive periods e.g. CNY) | $15,888 - $29,000 |
Which confinement option is better for me?
Regardless of which option you pick, the confinement period will always be a trying season for everyone, especially first-time mothers. It will be a time when you have to juggle your wound recovery, the pains of breastfeeding (and no, it doesn’t get easier the second time around), while taking care of a newborn who is fully dependent on you for his/her needs - which includes being fed and changed every few hours.
So if you asked those who have been through it before, they may advise you that it is worth choosing the option that will best preserve your sanity…or even your marriage.
Ultimately, there are different considerations for why a new mother might choose one option over another. Costs aside, you should also think about how much time you have to make all the various arrangements, and whether it is worth your while paying extra for convenience.
Some couples do not mind forking out a 5-digit sum for a confinement centre because it is a quick and easy fix that does not require them to make any other outside arrangements of their own. Others like the idea of being pampered in a facility with immediate access to medical nurses with prior experience in postnatal and baby care. In today’s busy and hectic lifestyle, it is not difficult to see why that is such an appealing idea.
Others may have no choice because their house may not have an extra bedroom to accommodate a live-in confinement nanny, or perhaps their parents do not trust external help with their precious grandchildren.
Other parents may prefer to save on confinement fees and save the money to spend on their children in the future instead.
Dawn Cher is a mother of two boys who chose to hire a confinement nanny and recuperate at home. As the founder of leading financial blog SG Budget Babe, she also shares various money hacks and tips on how parents can do more while spending less.