522 PW Confinement Center - Honest Review and My Stories

Pregnancy, labor, and delivery, then what next?

Confinement, of course.

Confinement, which literally translates to "sitting the month", has become a deeply ingrained tradition in Chinese society. Women are advised to stay indoors for recovery from the trauma of birth and feeding the newborn. 

There's a lot of do's and don't during this confinement period, and my gosh, the traditional ones are too damn strict. You cannot touch the water. You cannot blow cold wind. You cannot bathe nor wash your hair. Thankfully, the tradition has been improvised according to the advancement of technology and society lah, so not so miserable anymore, but I still do follow some of the rules, eg, I didn't wash my hair until the 20th day and I wore a long sarong throughout my confinement.

When we found out that we're pregnant, the next big thing was confinement. There were few options to choose from at the time: my mom coming to our place, I go back to KB, I go to Sing's place, we hire a confinement lady and a confinement center.

Honestly speaking, confinement center was like the very first thing pop out of our head. The reasons being, 1) our house is a 2-story terrace but there's no bathroom and toilet on the second floor, meaning we have to go up and down the stairs since the rooms were all upstairs, so it would be very inconvenient for my mom or the confinement lady; 2) our place is not really suitable to have a guest (aka the confinement lady) to stay in, my mom ok lah coz she's family, so confinement lady is sorta out; 3) if my mom were to come and help me with my confinement, tak boleh harap Sing to take her to the market to buy food; 4) Sing would miss me and the baby very much if I were to go back KB or to his place; 5) The confinement centers around Penang are quite cheap compared to other places like KL and Johor.

So, yeah, confinement center it is. 

Then, the next thing was to Google for the center that is nearest to our place in Bertam. The first confinement center we visited was PW, and right there and then, we decided to book a place and pay the deposit.

9am Breakfast

12 noon Lunch

3pm Tea time

6pm Dinner

9pm Supper

Miss Chong's homebaked siew pao

(I realized that I only take pictures of the food and nothing much else, so haha, only food pictures loh)

When the KK nurse asked me about my postpartum plan, she shook her head as I gave her my answer lol. Why? I would deliver at a private hospital and do my confinement at a confinement center. Bad combo! Why? Private hospitals (not all) are not very breastfeeding supportive*, whereas it's hard for you to learn much about your baby when you stay at a confinement center. She told me that those mothers who stayed at confinement centers didn't even know how many times their baby poops, so I swore that I won't be those kinds of mothers.

*Breastfeeding friendly is not the same as breastfeeding supportive - the statement I learned from The Breastfeeding Advocates Network TBAN. In my understanding, BF friendly is like "Oh, you have breast milk? Great! Give it to us and we'll feed your baby with it." but they don't really of much help when you have problems with breastfeeding such as latching problem, milk supply etc. I experienced it firsthand after I delivered my baby and when I stayed at the confinement center. Thankfully, Eggy is able to latch well after confinement.

Back to the story. So, after my labor on 26th, my ob-gyn decided to let me stay for another night at the hospital due to the rather difficult delivery, I suppose. Eggy had to be admitted for 2 more days after I was discharged because of his high jaundice level, so I went to the center without him. *cry*

He joined me two days later *kiss*

There are few types of rooms available at PW Confinement Center. Four rooms are the proper rooms while there are about 8 partitioned rooms of 2 sizes. The room I booked was the bigger partitioned room cost RM6000 for a month. Luckily it wasn't a packed month (only 6 mothers), so I didn't have a neighbor next to my room. Due to the thin wall and the sliding door of the partitioned rooms, if you have a neighbor, and worse, if you are a light sleeper, you won't have a good rest yikes. I heard that from a mother who stayed next to a noisy mom.

From then on, I started my laidback and leisure confinement journey. I complained a little when I had to get up in the middle of the night to pump, but argh that was way better than handling a crying baby! They provide 5 meals a day (9am breakfast, 12pm lunch, 3pm tea time, 6pm dinner, and 9pm supper) with an unlimited supply of red dates water. The boss, Miss Chong, cooked all our meals. All mothers sit together in the main hall for meals, hence the chance to socialize and chitchat. Mothers stay upstairs while the babies stay at the nursery downstairs, and we get to see them during the daytime (they lock the nursery door at 8pm till the next morning).

One of my fav dishes - Chicken chop

There's one phrase to comment about the food: Too Much Pork! I was quite shocked when I had to eat porks after porks for lunch and dinner, and a mother who gave birth 3 days before me told me that we had to eat pork and not other meat for the first 12 days. What made me kinda confused was that there were also very few vegetable dishes. Luckily, I didn't constipate due to the meaty meals.

Back to the breastfeeding topics, here's a problem about this kind of traditional confinement place (and most people lah actually): they want to know "how much" the baby is drinking, hence they would prefer bottle-feeding than us latching the babies. I understand that they want to make their jobs easier since they have to look after so many babies, but it sorta discourages us to try latching. 

Another thing that made my heart ache was that Eggy was quite a slow drinker, so there were few occasions when I saw the nanny was trying to let him finish his bottle as if she was stuffing a goose in the foie gras production. I admit that I was sissy lah as I didn't dare to tell her off. She did that because Eggy cried earlier than usual if he drank less milk, so by feeding him more, he would sleep longer and wake up a little later (which is also a problem there). So, sometimes I would take note of the time, and when it was almost time to nurse him, I would bring him up to my room (the room was only big enough for a queen bed, so babies sleep at nursery) and feed him myself. When he couldn't finish and keep on nudging the bottle away, I'd drink them up! I was so worried about latching because I failed by trying to attempt it at the center, but thankfully Eggy was cooperative and he latches very well after confinement.

Since the nannies prefer bottle-feeding, hence the beginning of my exclusively pumping life. 

The usual sight on the table in my room - looks like the assembly line of a factory lol

I was very anxious and worried the first few days after labor because 1) I couldn't get Eggy to latch on me while we were at the hospital; 2) He was FM fed since day one; 3) My yield was pathetic as I didn't get the stimulation needed (him latching) to produce milk. WhatsApp and Instagram were my best friends as I asked questions on Insta and consulted some mothers about breastfeeding. I only got a few droplets when I tried to squeeze and Chen quickly stopped me (virtually) because she said they were the essence and don't waste them! "Feed them to your baby!" Okay okay. 

After he was discharged and sent to the center, I quickly carried him up to my room and he latched for the first time on the 4th day he came to this world! *Cheers with tears* On that very night, I finally managed to squeeze out 10 ml of milk by Marmet Technique aka hand expressing. From almost nothing to 10 ml in a day! I still didn't get anything from the electric pump so for the next 3 days, I used the hand expression tandem with haakaa milk collector to express the milk out of my boob.

And then, I suddenly felt that maybe I should give the electric pump a try again since I got the Medela  Freestyle pump for free (I didn't check the price when I got it, but after Chen and some mothers exclaimed in surprise that I have a Medela, I did a quick search, and yeah, I won't buy it myself if it's up to me lol!), and so I did. Surprise, surprise, I got 5 oz from 1 pump session! But it was just one-time thing lah because I didn't get that much yield on my next pump.

In my experience, the difference between exclusively pumping and the direct latch is that my boobs always feel very empty and light after I start latching Eggy after confinement. During confinement, I would feel engorged and heavy even after pumping, especially when my body started responding to the effect of papaya soup - it is said to be the ultimate milk booster, even caused 2-3 mothers to be engorged yikes. They would carry their babies back to their room as babies are the best pump in the world mah. Too bad Eggy wasn't much of help back then, so I had to deal with it myself - felt very proud of myself too when I successfully cleared the blocked milk duct on your own via hand expression.  

The ultimate milk booster - papaya soup

Here's another thing about traditional confinement center/lady: read *traditional*. Nowadays, mothers are more modern and scientific-based, and a lot of confinement myths have been debunked lah, so they tend to not follow the traditional ways eg in terms of treating jaundice. In here, the nannies will feed your babies Chinese herbal powder for jaundice and 'shock' - yes, babies tend to startle a lot and then cry, there's a 'powder' for that, but with your consent, of course. If you don't want, they won't force you. 

One last thing about this place is the hygiene. It is an aged bungalow with wooden built-in cupboards and the many things piled up all over the house, so, yes, our long-tailed pals have been partying behind all the cupboards and stuff. I didn't see any lah but the mothers did spot one or two lurking around the house.

All in all, here's my two cents:

1) This is quite a decent confinement center with awesome food. 

2) I am thankful that my body can produce milk after latching. 

3) I must say that (good) confinement centers are a brilliant existence over confinement lady because it solves so many problems at once - there's someone to cook for you, someone to take care of your babies, all you do is eat - pump - sleep.