I would like to share my personal experience (negative) in engaging this confinement lady, Serena, from Pekan Nanas, Johor Bahru.
I found her thru my parents' contacts in Feb. She claims to be a professional nanny, did a job in Jurong, and asks for $2200 (my EDD in June). She complained that the family in Jurong were very fussy. Serena insisted on us paying for her cab fee from Woodlands Checkpt, enter-door-hongbao, leave-door-hongbao. Must have someone in the family go to the market with her each day. So far quite reasonable demands. Before we paid her $200 deposit, we laid down two conditions: (1) She will be sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the bedroom as we do not have extra bed, (2) Must not be scared of dogs as we have one at home. She agreed.
Two weeks later, she contacted my mother and said since she will be with us for 'such a long time' (i.e. 28 days), she felt she deserved to have a bed. We were shocked at the request. Felt uneasy. Before she even comes over, already demand for this and that, we thought we better terminate her services, esp since she has been making demands concerned about her welfare. That's not someone we will trust with our baby.
My mother called her and asked if we could get some part of the deposit back. (Actually, my husband and I don't expect her to give us back, esp since Serena seems so concerned about $$). To our surprise, she actually scolded my mother for daring to ask for the return of the deposit and said we don't know how things work in this line.
We are glad we have made the right decision not to hire her.