If you are pregnant right now, you will need to start thinking about your confinement arrangement and if this is your first baby, you may be wondering what to do about your confinement.

Mother/Mother-in-law

In my opinion, having your mother or mother-in-law (assuming you get along fine with them) do your confinement for you is the best arrangement.  If you are fortunate enough to have this option, count your blessings!

Firstly, they are true family and will go the extra mile to help you.  Your own mother will know your taste in food and you are used to the kind of cooking she does.  Although the down side is that they tend to be the most interfering people around, and you may find them naggy and dislike the way they interfere with how you want to take care of your baby, to me, this is still the best arrangement compared to the other options which I will elaborate later. At least, try to overcome the little disagreements here and there and treasure this blessing of having family do your confinement.

Confinement Nanny

It is also common for people to engage a confinement nanny to take care of them and the baby during the one month confinement.  Typically, there are two sources – local confinement nannies or foreign (Malaysian) confinement nannies.  If you are hiring a Malaysian confinement nanny, please note that it is illegal to do so without applying for a work permit and paying the Foreign Worker Level for her.  For more information, please refer to Ministry of Manpower website.

According to people who have engaged the service of confinement nannies, some of the common problems with engaging local confinement nannies are higher costs, fussier nannies who won't perform certain duties (e.g. Cleaning the house or doing the night feeds) and the tendency for them to quit midway and not completing the whole month's worth of work.

Malaysian nannies tend to give less of such problems.  According to people in the confinement nanny business, these days, it is harder to find experienced nannies from the local market, which leads to more people employing Malaysian nannies.  Another key factor for the popularity of Malaysian nannies is that they are cheaper to employ.  However, if you factor in the Foreign Worker Levy, I find the cost difference to be small.

Whether you are employing a local or a Malaysian nanny, my advice is to rely on word of mouth recommendation.  This is much better than to rely on an agency to find a nanny for you.  The agencies will always claim that they only use experienced nannies or that their nannies come highly recommended by previous clients.  But there is no way for you to verify this as confinement nannies don't come with certification.  So nothing beats recommendation of people you really know.