Hiring Freelance Confinement Nanny Vs Agency-based Confinement Nanny in Singapore

EDD coming up soon and looking to hire a confinement nanny in Singapore? If you have been researching confinement nanny services online, and maybe even asking friends and family for recommendations, you may have noticed that there are basically two main types of confinement nanny service in the market, namely confinement nanny from an agency, and freelance confinement nanny. And you might be contemplating which one to go for.

Now, we’re not here to tell you right away how one option is better than the other, because honestly, every family’s needs and preferences are different.

Instead, we would like to suggest a few aspects that you should consider when deciding whether to hire a confinement nanny from an agency or a freelance confinement nanny in Singapore. These are factors that most expecting parents, especially first-time parents tend to overlook, so be sure you read till the end!

Nanny’s Experience and Skills

Out of all of the factors that you need to consider when hiring a confinement nanny, the nanny’s experience and skills in confinement care and newborn care will undoubtedly make or break the deal.

During the postpartum stage, both the mother and the newborn will require extensive and attentive care, so you want to make sure your nanny has the professional skills, knowledge and experience to attend to both you and your newborn.

Hence, before engaging with a nanny, it helps to find out about things like:

  • What services is the nanny skilled in? Some important ones being feeding and bathing the baby, preparing confinement meals and tonics, providing support and guidance on postpartum recovery, breastfeeding and newborn care, basic newborn first aid.
  • How many clients does the nanny serve in a year? When was her last service? This gives you a better idea of the nanny’s experience.

For freelance confinement nanny, some of them may offer their skills and knowledge based on self-learning along with traditional beliefs and practices – which their level of expertise might vary depending on the time and method they used to learn those skills, as well as their work experience.

On the other hand, confinement nannies from agencies are often required by their agencies to attend professional courses before they start serving any clients. At PEM, all of our confinement nannies are required to go through 150 hours of intensive training on an extensive range of confinement nanny duties, including baby care, postpartum care and confinement meal preparation.

Followed by this training is strict written and practical exams, where we evaluate the trainees’ understanding and skills of the topic taught.

Particularly for practical exams, the trainees need to prove their competency in areas such as steps to do upon arrival at the customer’s home, bathing, feeding and burping baby, cleaning baby’s umbilical cord, basic first-aid for choking baby, storing milk, and sterilising milk bottle. On top of baby care, the training also includes mother care, including cooking confinement meals, breast massage, sharing knowledge on confinement food and herbs and more.

Only trainees who pass all the assessments above will get a work permit and start serving clients. All nannies also need to fulfill a minimum of 8 services per year to make sure they are constantly getting more experience.

Punctuality of Service

Imagine coming home from the hospital, with your whole body sore and bloated, your newborn crying in your arms, and your nanny didn’t show up as promised! Sounds like a very helpless situation that you wouldn’t want to be in, right?

Life happens, and there is a possibility that your nanny might encounter special circumstances or emergencies that stop her from arriving at your home on time.

With a freelance confinement nanny Singapore service, you’re pretty much left with the option of waiting for your confinement nanny as she reschedules her arrival time, which could take days or even weeks depending on the situation. And before that happens, you’re all on your own.

Confinement nanny services Singapore agencies offer more certainty and assurance when it comes to the arrival of their nannies. PEM is committed to ensuring guaranteed arrival of confinement nannies at your doorstep on time. With over 400 confinement nannies on our team, we are here to make sure our nannies show up on time, every time.

Replacement of Nanny

Hiring a stay-in confinement nanny in Singapore essentially means having a stranger staying in your home for at least a month. If it turns out that you are happy with the confinement nanny you hired, great! But for some parents, this isn’t always a smooth sailing process.

Like all humans, every parent and confinement nanny has different personalities, values and beliefs, even more so in the area of confinement care where practices are constantly evolving as technology and medical science advances.

With a freelance confinement nanny, if you are not satisfied with her service and you would like to end the service, or if your nanny fell sick during her service, the whole situation can be very stressful. Finding help at the last minute can be challenging, even more so during the current pandemic. So unless you manage to get a replacement immediately, you will most likely be left with no help for the rest of the weeks. Not to mention you might have to deal with tricky issues like compensation and refunds. So be sure to do your research before engaging with a freelance confinement nanny in Singapore.

At PEM, while we strive to train our nannies to offer the most professional and reliable service, we understand and respect our clients’ decisions when they request for their nanny to be replaced. With our sufficient confinement nannies Singapore team, we provide two times of free replacement of nannies should you feel that your nanny is not a right fit for you.

Nanny’s Insurance

A confinement nanny usually helps with feeding and bathing the newborn, cooking daily confinement meals and cleaning the kitchen, preparing the mother’s herbal bath water, doing laundry for the mother and newborn, among many other miscellaneous responsibilities that are related to taking good care of both the mother and her newborn.

Yes, this is a lot of hard work and confinement nannies would often need to multitask. And as much as they would do their best to avoid this, sometimes accidents do happen. Your nanny might accidentally cut herself when preparing meals, or sprain her ankles when moving about the house. 

If a freelance confinement nanny gets hurt when providing her service at your home, you may have to be responsible for her treatment and medical bills. On the other hand, engaging a confinement nanny agency like PEM who provides insurance coverage for nannies will keep the parents and nannies protected*. *Terms & conditions apply.

Nanny’s Work Permit Application

Last but not least, often when parents think of confinement nanny service, they think of what happens during the confinement, but not before the confinement. Due to the similarities of confinement practices between Malaysia and Singapore, it is safe to say that almost all confinement nannies in Singapore are from Malaysia. Hence, in order for them to be legally working in Singapore, they are required to have a work permit. 

The process of applying for a work permit for your confinement nanny can be time consuming and complex. This includes paperwork, levy payment and more. Many experienced parents will tell you that this is the last thing you want to add to your long to-do list with a baby due in weeks.

At PEM Confinement Nanny Agency, we take all of this hassle off your shoulders. We assist you throughout the whole process of work permit applications, so you can focus on what’s important to you and your family!

Verdict

We’ll leave the decision on whether to hire a freelance confinement nanny or an agency-based confinement nanny to you. That said, if you prefer having more certainty and reassurance with your confinement nanny service, we definitely recommend you to engage a confinement nanny from a reputable and established agency.

 

Confinement Nanny

PEM Confinement Nanny Agency was established in 1987, with over 30 years in the industry. We are the first confinement nanny agency in Singapore to be licensed by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), and we have served over 15,000 satisfied mothers and still counting.

With the help of our experienced and well-trained nanny, you can experience a healing and rejuvenating confinement at home.

What are you looking for when hiring a confinement nanny? Tell us more about it here!

Author

  • PEM Confinement Nanny Agency

    We are a group of frontliners and support team members who are passionate about sharing our knowledge and experience in confinement care. Representing the largest confinement nanny agency in Singapore which has served over 250,000 mothers in over 30 years, we are all about sharing useful and insightful information based on our experience to help new parents navigate this exciting chapter of their life better.