[chanmanman]

Hi hi , my due day is Jund08, i am intensively prepare for the coming time, i am looking for good confinement lady, anyone can give me some advise? this is my first time....=>

[joshsmum]

What is a confinement lady? Sorry for my ignorance (also my first time).

[ManMan]

In Hong Kong, a confinement lady, also called pui yuet (which means "to accompany for a month") is a temporary domestic helper who specialises in taking care of the newborn baby and the recovering mother during the first month after birth.

My sister offered to help me with pui yuet duties but my friend has recommended one as well. It will cost between 9K and 10K (based on 26 days x 6 hrs/day x $60). My sister will not charge of course, but she has her own family to take care of, and I doubt she will hang out with me and my newborn for six hours every day...

My husband, who will support whatever decision I make, and being a foreigner, wants to know if a pui yuet is even necessary. After all, we've hired our first domestic helper (Filipino) and she will start around the time the baby comes. So, is a pui yuet a necessity or a luxury?

[mamaS]

hi,

If you have a live-in domestic helper, i don't see a need for a pui yuet.

I'm a first time mom, no relatives at all when i delivered here, you can survive with baby care, attend prenatal classes and read books and being a mom will come naturally.

My biggest concern is the food to eat, as i know i cannot cook those confinement food, depending on the helper is also out of the question. I plan to get a pui yuet too at that time but the cost is high and i don't know if i can trust her, aside from i need to spend for buying the ingredients.

What i did is get the service of this company who delivers confinement food, sorry, i cannot remember the name now. I found it here in geobaby, so just do a research on confinement and it will surely pop up. They did a great job, i have it delivered for one month, though at 3rd week it all taste the same. It costs around 8k if i'm not mistaken. You don't have to worry as they provide from breakfast to lunch to snack til dinner. highly recommended.

Good luck.

[ManMan]

Well, I met the pui yuet recommended by a classmate of mine who's now a nurse. We introduced each other and got to chat a while and she brought a printed list of things to get, i.e., confinement food ingredients and so on. Good thing she's available in the next ten days, when I'm due. What mattered the most was that we chatted so I got a good idea of whether or not I could trust her, and I had a good feeling about her. Plus, she lives just a few minutes away by foot. I'll post my experiences with her later...

[Sumei]

hi,

I think whether one "needs" a confinement lady depends entirely on your expectations postnatally and on other factors such as whether you are breastfeeding exclusively, how efficient and experienced your domestic helper is, how particular you are about eating very traditional confinement food, how involved other members of the family are in assisting you (ie your hubby) etc.....if you are breastfeeding exclusively and feeding directly, babies in the early 1-2 months spend alot of time feeding for quite long periods of time (30-60 mins) and quite often (every 2-3 hours) so I am not too sure how busy you can keep a confinement lady, esp one that only is working 6-8 hours for you during the day! In terms of confinement food, there are alot of English cookbooks on confinement diet that the helper could read and cook meals from (that's how my helper started off doing this for her other employer and for me during my 2 confinements) so you don't necessarily need a confinement lady or a confinement food delivery service to eat well for the first month....I am sure the confinement food service is well run but $8k seems like quite alot of money to me! Also if your new helper is experienced particularly with newborns and you tend to be very hands-on, a confinement lady may not be necessary. I have heard from many friends who have employed local confinement ladies that they landed up having to fire them as they were not as competent or experienced as they made themselves out to be and gave more grief than help in that period of time so if you do decide to go that way, do have her checked out and ask very specific questions. Alot of friends complained that the confinement ladies wanted time off to keep popping out to run their own personal errands!

Good luck which ever way you decide!

[mamaS]

Agree with sumei that 8k is expensive. But for my case, my helper is direct from Philippines, cannot follow cookbook nor familiar with chinese ingredients. I got her one month before i deliver, no more time to train her with cooking. (Though she is very good with babies) That's why i don't have any choice but go with the food delivery.

I also heard lots of negative things about hiring a pui yet. If you get one, should be recommended by a friend.

[ManMan]

Thanks to Sumei and mamaS for their comments and feedback. In my case, the pui yuet is recommended by a nurse friend. I know that I have hired to work six hours a day, which is not a lot, but my husband and I are getting a full-time domestic helper around the time the baby comes, and we will instruct the helper to learn from the pui yuet during the time she's at our home. I have read other comments about pui yuets and I also wonder, what about night time help? It was certain that we would hire a domestic helper, but since her experience in HK is limited, my nurse friend recommended a pui yuet to help out.