Confinement centres must register with social welfare department

PUTRAJAYA: Postpartum or confinement care centres are now required to register with the Social Welfare Department or face being impounded or closed, said Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM) Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun.
She said the decision to register the centres was discussed in her ministry's post-Cabinet meeting two weeks ago.
The decision was made after such as centre in Cheras, which also doubled as a nursery, was found to have abused a 10-month-old baby girl, she said.
"The centre has now been impounded," she told reporters after opening the assembly of Tai Chi practitioners from Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore here today.
According to Chew, before this there was a confusion whether such centres should be registered with the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development.
"Considering that the centres do not provide any medication, then it must register with the Welfare Department under this ministry. Once registered the centres will be monitored from time to time in terms of quality of service and the level of security," she said.
Any centres that are not registered with the department will be given a reminder and a warning prior to foreclosure action being taken or the centre being shut down, she stressed.
Chew said postpartum or confinement care centres usually provide a package of services for 30 days in which the mother and the newborn baby will stay in the centre and be given appropriate food and herbal treatment during the period.
A growing number of such care centres have been, of late, well received, particularly among working women, she added. — Bernama