any forumosans with postpartum nursery retreat experience?
what is the cost? what you liked and what you didn’t like…
thanks
p
big business here…looking around 8-10K per day…personally I don’t think it’s worth it. Can’t you do the same thing at home? When we had our son, my wife just stayed at home with him, slept when he slept. She was fine. No in laws came over. I took some time off of work as well. There are benefits here that entitle you to stay at home with the family.
A friend of mine (Australian in Taiwan) has just finished the rest month at home with a traditional rest month carer. She blogged her experience daily here: http://taiwanxifu.com/. She has some costs listed for the food and carer. I bet she looked into the costs of staying in centers, too. Just drop her a note in the comments box.
Serina and I also have a double-page of information about birthing in Taiwan in this month’s Centered on Taipei magazine. Go to pages 20-21.
http://issuu.com/centeredontaipei/docs/cot_201209?mode=window&viewMode=doublePage
We’re booked in for the start of November for 21 days, at NT$8,500. Yes, I know what you are thinking - it is a sh*tload of cash.
A couple of things to note:
- The prices have gone up because of very strong demand in this dragon year
- It will give the mommy time to recover and rest
- If you don’t stay in one, against the mommy’s wishes, she may bring up this topic for many years after. My friend didn’t let his wife stay in one after their son was born and every time she sneezes she blames it on not going there. Of course, she is a bit grumpy…
I recommend you go for 7-10 days, it’ll be worth it. They’ll show you things like how to bath the baby, change his diaper etc. too.
I went with the wife to check one of these places out. Was around 2000 a day for a month.
The room was like a nice hotel room, with a big screen tv, dvd player, Mod, king size bed etc.
I think the most expensive package was around 105 000 for a month.
This is an extremely well known one in Kaohsiung.
8 to 10k is taking the mickey bliss.
[quote=“pizzaon”]any forumosans with postpartum nursery retreat experience?
what is the cost? what you liked and what you didn’t like…
thanks
p[/quote]
In Taipei you are looking at 5K a day for a broom closet and mediocre care, and 6.5-10K for ‘bigger’ rooms (going from tiny room with single bed at the ‘lower’ end to bigger room with double bed as you near 10K) with a bit better care.
It is a fuckin racket. I think these places will be really crowded this year too with all the dragons coming along. If you have a comfortable home situation and nearby relatives, its best to stay home and cook the meals they might have provided.
[quote=“Deuce Dropper”][quote=“pizzaon”]any forumosans with postpartum nursery retreat experience?
what is the cost? what you liked and what you didn’t like…
thanks
p[/quote]
In Taipei you are looking at 5K a day for a broom closet and mediocre care, and 6.5-10K for ‘bigger’ rooms (going from tiny room with single bed at the ‘lower’ end to bigger room with double bed as you near 10K) with a bit better care.
It is a fuckin racket. I think these places will be really crowded this year too with all the dragons coming along. If you have a comfortable home situation and nearby relatives, its best to stay home and cook the meals they might have provided.[/quote]
My sister-in-law stayed in a place that costed around 6.5K/day. The “big” room was really tiny (the rooms in spanish public health care hospitals are bigger), but had a good degree of privacy, and the whole place was really clean. But I still think they’re awfully expensive.
My wife and me have been looking for one of this places too (the sis-in-law doesn’t want my wife to go to the same place as her, she doesn’t want them to compare between babies… absurd, if you want, but the family agree on that). If I find something interesting, I’ll let you know.
I went to one after the birth of my son 3 years ago. I stayed at yono.com.tw, the WenShan branch in Mucha. The daily rate was approx NT$4,500, and I stayed the full 30 days, so yes it was pricey but after the experience, I seriously don’t understand how moms make it through by themselves back home in the West. I thought I might go stir-crazy and chafe at “restrictions” during the confinement period, but I ended up loving the experience.
I unexpectedly had a lot of breastfeeding difficulties - my son could not latch on for the first several weeks of his life - and having someone else provide nutritious, delicious meals; fresh changes of clothes for myself and baby; housekeeping; etc. was wonderful. When I needed an emotional break, there was 24-hour childcare. I could then mentally re-coup and pump. The nurses were very supportive and helpful, without the emotional baggage of well-meaning relatives. Since there were visiting hours, that also helped control the flow of visitors (because honestly, in the first few weeks of my child’s life, I’d rather be attending to his needs than entertaining guests). My room was very large and comfortable - larger than the hotel rooms that I’ve seen in Taipei’s higher end hotels (W, Far Eastern, Hyatt, etc.) - modern, king-size bed, view of the Mucha hills. I’m quite certain if I hadn’t stayed at my “postpartum retreat,” I would’ve definitely come down with postpartum depression. Being in that environment helped me to hang on to my goal of breastfeeding my child, and he’s thankfully never had a drop of formula touch his lips.
Oh, and in speaking with my mom friends overseas - they’ve had postpartum recovery problems that involved having to take stool softeners and other medications. Let’s just politely say I never had those kinds of physical problems, not with the diet provided at the center. There was so much food my husband began to finish off my meals, and he found himself very regular as well. My local mom friends have also told me horror stories of bad postpartum experiences with mom/MIL, who ended up not being as helpful as they’d hoped (differing expectations, values, knowledge, etc.). Of course, everyone’s situation is different but I liked having professional but impartial help.
I’m sure prices have risen in this year of high demand, but if your child is not due until next year perhaps prices will be lower then. I highly recommend my place and the staff there was incredibly helpful. They told me that they had other foreigners stay with them prior to my stay.
I also had attachment problems with my baby, which took almost a month to resolve. It was distressing dealing with a crying baby (we nicknamed him ‘Angry Bird’), but having someone there to reassure and assist made a huge difference. In my case, I had a confinement nanny (yuepo). But I did do some research into the cost of confinement centers (taiwanxifu.com/2012/07/18/the-co … nfinement/).
According to a Taiwanese magazine article published early this year, the average cost of confinement centers is NT$5,000 to NT$6,000 per night. Some hotels charge extra for meals, or offer discounts for longer stays or for patients who delivered in their hospital/birthing center. I found that many of the better ones were at least NT$7,000.
I visited one confinement center (out of curiosity) but never stayed in one. I would be interested to find out more about people’s experiences.
No time to read above posts…sure very helpful though. Wifey had c section and had 5 days recovery in hosp. Nurses were angels. hosp meals delivered to home for 2 weeks. Very affordable. No need for anything else. Just get used to sleepless nights and cranky mum. It’s gotta be faced and 1 or 2 weeks elsewhere is cash better spent on all the other costs coming your way. It’s all good though; 
congrats!