KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — The idea to set up Suri Confinement Care Centre in Bukit Mertajam, Penang came about when co-founder Syahirah saw for herself how taxing it is to care for a new mother during the post-delivery period.
She wanted to lift the weight off her own mother, and realised her friends felt the same way.
“We are more comfortable at home and we want someone to come take care of us because at that particular period of time, we feel very fragile and vulnerable. But at the same time, we don’t want to trouble our mothers.”
“So we thought why not make a centre where mothers can come and stay because not everyone — especially in Penang, most of our homes are either apartments or flats — we don’t have the convenience of space to have a stay-in confinement lady.
“With this centre, we want to provide everything the mother needs so she only has to bring herself to the centre and focus on the ‘pantang’ process,” Syahirah, who gave the one-word name as she has another full-time job, told Malay Mail.
Pantang or berpantang is where a Muslim woman, after giving birth, typically undergoes certain rituals for 40 to 44 days.
During this period, they follow certain restrictions on food and go through specific treatments to restore their body and health back to normal.
“For first-time mothers, there is no problem but the challenge arises when a woman has more than one child and she may not want to be separated from her children.
“But that said, we do have clients who choose to stay in the centre so that they can focus on recovery and go back to being a mummy again even if it means separating from their children and husband for 44 days,” said Syahirah.
Modern meets traditional
At Suri, they follow a modern diet regime instead of the traditional pantang food. “No, we don’t provide the olden days’ pantang food, but we cook using healthy methods such as steaming, grilling, and we include vegetables and fruits.
“The meals that we provide contain the types of vitamins needed for recovery. They do ask, before they come over, whether we provide jamu — which we don’t — so we have to explain why, because we are not sure of the types of ingredients in the jamu and the health history of the mother, in case of allergies,” said Syahirah.
Jamu is a herbal drink taken to keep the body warm, as the belief goes that the body’s pores open during labour and this drink has properties that can keep the body warm.
“If they insist on following the old practices, we do have confinement ladies who have traditional knowledge to cater to mothers who put in these requests,” she said.
So why does a Muslim mother of today choose to stay in a confinement centre?
According to Nurain Suparman of Hani Confinement Care Centre in Bangi, one of the reasons is the availability of a confinement lady.
“At our centre, confinement ladies are available 24 hours. They work in shifts to ensure mothers’ and babies’ needs are always taken care of,” Nurain told Malay Mail.
This is also part of the reason why services offered by confinement centres come at a higher price point.
“A bulk of the cost goes to salaries paid to our staff, as they work on shifts. Each shift, we have two confinement ladies on duty, and in a day, there are three shifts,” Nurain said.
A typical price range for confinement centres today is between RM7,000 and RM30,000, for packages between 14 to 44 days. This price includes accommodation for the husbands as well.
“We will be introducing a seven-day package where mothers can opt to come for traditional treatments only,” she added.
The types of traditional treatments offered at Muslim confinement centres include bertuku (hot compress), berdiang (heat treatment), urut (massage), barut or berbengkung (wrap) and tangas (vagina steaming).
For Muslim mothers, there is also a concern about covering their aurat, says Syahirah. Aurat in Malay refers to “intimate body parts” that Muslim men and women must cover with clothing; exposing these is considered sinful.
At Suri Confinement Care Centre, husbands are allowed to stay-in, but they will be confined to selected rooms only.
As for Hani Confinement Care Centre, husbands are only allowed in common areas, and not allowed at the baby room as some mothers do their breastfeeding there.
Stay-in confinement service
Offering a hybrid confinement service, Suraya Mothercare and Beauty founders Siti Suhana Kamal Admi and Siti Surayah Kamal Admi provide stay-in confinement ladies who are sent to their clients’ residences.
“When I had my first baby, I experienced how difficult it was to hire a confinement lady. I could not find someone who was able to stay with me for longer hours.
“We later found that many mothers also faced a similar problem, that’s why we embarked on this business,” Suraya said.
Using a different approach, Suhana said their confinement ladies work a 12-hour shift (from 8am to 8pm), they do more the cooking and cleaning, treatment for the mother, and caring for the baby.
“To date, our confinement ladies have been sent abroad to live-in with mothers who require confinement support,” Suhana said.
She added that this service — whether it be staying at the centre or having a stay-in confinement lady — is in high demand and some husbands gift this to their wives in appreciation for going through the pregnancy and delivery process.
“We are based in Johor Baru and this is a trend that is picking up not just in Malaysia but also in Singapore as we do have clients from there as well,” she said.
To date, Suraya’s confinement ladies have even been to countries like Australia and Canada.
