Hire confinement nanny or no?

Hello, mummies. I would really appreciate some advice regarding the decision to hire a confinement nanny. As first-time parents, my husband and I are feeling a bit uncertain about how to handle a newborn and manage the confinement period effectively. However, my husband seems to think that it would be a waste of money to hire a confinement nanny because he plans to take his one month of paternity leave and take care of both me and the baby. While I value my husband's support and his belief in his ability to care for us, I have some reservations. He has no prior experience with newborns, and I'm concerned that he might not be fully aware of all the specific needs and requirements during the confinement period additionally he tends to adapt to situations as they arise and doesn't typically engage in extensive research on such topics. He also mentioned that his mother, who raised him and his siblings, will be knowledgeable about handling babies and can cook confinement food using herbs and meat. However, I worry that while their intentions are good, they may not possess the professional expertise required to handle the baby correctly, which could lead to disagreements and compromise my much-needed rest and recovery. Moreover, I have come across information suggesting that improper confinement practices may lead to long-term health issues in old age. Considering this, I firmly believe that hiring a confinement nanny is not a waste of money. Their professional guidance can help ensure that outdated practices or superstitious beliefs, such as feeding the baby TCM/water or other old wife tales, are avoided and that the baby's well-being is prioritized. I would greatly appreciate any advice on how to effectively communicate my concerns to my husband and help him understand the importance of having a confinement nanny or how can I go ahead without a confinement nanny and still ensure that I will be at ease to go with his way for myself and my baby to be in my husband and in law care?

4 Replies
 profile icon
Write a reply

I would highly recommend for confinement nanny. I just finish my confinement a week ago and it was done by my mum and had taken my confinement meal with Tianwei. Previously my hub and I was thinking if we should hire one but due to space constraint, there’s isn’t any avail rooms for her as she would have to sleep in the living room and my other family members do not have a usual sleep routine which they could stay up late and confinement nanny may not have proper rest to take care of baby. Another reason why i go for confinement nanny is due to the night time. My mum is doing confinement for me during the day and nighttime we will have to care for the baby ourselves. The tiredness kick in after a few nights as we had to wake LO up to feed her and she take very long to finish a feed. At times, when you are very drained from PP and taking care of baby after a few nights, you may wish you had hire one so u can get the nanny to take care while u/hub continue to rest or rest abit to recharged. On the downside, I heard that you will need to monitor the nanny at times as they may overfeed to make baby in milk coma so they can rest too (this depends on luck I guess) else I think they might be in a better position to teach to handle a newborn. I also find that with confinement nanny, I feel that I can instruct them on certain things to ask them to do certain things for the baby but for my mum, it’s quite hard to do so even if I’m hiring my mum for this. She also mention that she feel overwhelmed as she still have to do household chores and some cooking for her and other family member too. I’m glad that your hub and in-laws are supportive and willing to help but it will be more comfortable to hire nanny if finance and space allows u where there’s a need to instruct for certain things, you can do it without holding back, both your hub and yourself can at least have ample rest and your hub can take the opportunity to hands on and learn as much as possible from the nanny which you can later on learn from him since he had no prior experience. Jiayou! 😊

Read more

If you and hubby can afford then go ahead! You really need to rest up and take care of your body after delivering your baby. That month is very crucial. My grandma convinced my mum not to hire a nanny with empty promises that she will help care for baby and her. But once I came she was left on her own to care for me. Because of this my mum (then a FTM and inexperience) she kept bending over to change me/ carry me/ take care of me she had heavy bleeding which led to her having to be re admitted for minor surgery and also because of this she had difficulty conceiving afterwards. Many unexpected things can happen. Which is why once I knew I was pregnant, after I reach 12 weeks the first thing I did was to hire a confinement nanny.

Read more

Hi mum, if you have the means, and if it would put your worries to rest, maybe you can hire a confinement nanny. You can compromise with your husband this way - hire a nanny for at least one week (to make sure you really get to rest after giving birth, which is crucial to your health) to teach your husband how to care for the baby, and then let husband take over the caregiving duties once the nanny leaves. If you do decide to forego getting a confinement nanny, then you could also prepare a to-do and not to-do list for husband and other relatives who will be helping you care for your child. Just so everybody is on the same page. You can check theAsianparent website on more articles for newborn care. Hope this helps!

Read more
TapFluencer

i would highly recommend