In 2016, Chew Mei Fun, the then deputy minister of Women, Family and Community Development said that post-delivery confinement care centres that did not offer medical facilities must register with the Welfare Department or risk being shut down.
However, the confinement centres were never licensed under the said ministry.
In recent years, the postnatal industry has boomed in Malaysia with packages costing up to RM40,000 for 28 days of the post-partum period.
However, there have been complaints, among others, of substandard services provided by the confinement centres which resulted in serious medical complications for the mothers and infants.
These complaints were then resolved in private between the confinement centres and the mothers. What remedies were available to the mothers? Who could the mothers turn to in the case of disputes or mishaps?
A check on the Department of Social Welfare’s website shows there is a list of registered child care centre divided into states and district. However, the list does not contain confinement centres.
Under Child Care Centre Act 1984, “child care centres” mean any premise at which four or more children under the age of four years from more than one household are received to be looked after for reward.
Obviously, confinement centres do not come under this definition of “child care centre”. In that case, the then deputy minister’s statement does not make sense. Therefore, the ministry is unable to take legal action against the bad confinement centres.
Midwives and nurses are required to be registered under Midwives Act 1966. Under the said Act, a "midwife" basically means a person who takes care of pregnant women from the beginning of the pregnancy until the end of the puerperium (about six weeks after childbirth) together with the care of their infants during the neonatal or newborn period.
Whilst "nurse" means a person who is registered as a nurse in accordance with any written law. In other words, the Midwives Board or Nursing Board may take disciplinary action against midwives and nurses who work in confinement centres.
The contracts signed by mothers and the confinement centres will detail out the remedies available for new mothers. Therefore, new mothers need to read and review the contractual terms carefully before signing off their crucial recovery period into the hands of these confinement centres.
Apart from these contractual terms, the mothers can lodge complaints against particular midwives or nurses to the Nursing Division, Ministry of Health based on laws, regulations and codes of professional conduct.
Considering there is no avenue for the mothers to complain with regards to confinement centres, I appeal and urge Deputy Prime Minister cum Women, Family and Community Development Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to study this lacunae, draft new laws or amend existing laws to monitor the confinement centres and to protect mothers and infants before any unfortunate event happens. -Mkini
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