Postnatal help at home: separating agreed tasks from feeding questions

Write one note with two separate parts. The first part holds the household instructions you and your carer have agreed: what she does at home, how you prefer it done, and when. The second part holds each feeding or recovery question in your own words, beside the name and number of the person or service who will answer it. Keeping the two apart is an optional editorial suggestion, not an official format, and it never decides clinical care. ^[1]

Our earlier column covered the Work Permit side of a confinement nanny arrangement — who may be hired, the permit window, the levy and the insurance condition — and belongs beside this one, not inside it. MOM's guidance on giving clear instructions is written for migrant domestic workers, so adapting it to a confinement nanny arrangement is our editorial choice. What changes when the two parts are separated is not the care. It is who gets asked, and how quickly a clinical question reaches someone qualified to answer it. ^[1]

Build on the earlier care brief

In a Straits Times report on 12 September 2026, Siew Suet Yen, who co-founded a maternal care platform launched in July 2025, described the six weeks from hospital discharge to the next clinic check-up as unstructured, asking how it was that a medically advanced country discharges new mothers into that gap. That is one founder's account of the gap her platform sells into, not an official assessment of Singapore's postnatal services. ^[2]

On the clinical side, KKH's Assistant Director of Nursing described the postnatal period as the first six weeks following childbirth, when mothers take on significant changes as they adapt to caring for a newborn, and said a seamless transition home matters. Her point is about continuity of care. The short note you write for postnatal help at home is a separate, practical thing — and it works better when it says who answers what. ^[3]

Separate an instruction from a clinical question

MOM's eight-step guide to hiring a helper tells employers not to assume the worker will know how they want duties performed, and instead to create a schedule, demonstrate how they like tasks to be done, and speak clearly and slowly. The same step suggests setting clear house rules, discussing dietary requirements if she cooks for you, highlighting the safety and hygiene procedures you expect, telling her about medication schedules and writing down dosages if she cares for ill family members, and giving her a list of numbers to call in an emergency, including ambulance services and your family members. ^[1]

HealthHub's reviewed breastfeeding guidance points somewhere else entirely for anything clinical: if you have any problems, approach your hospital's lactation consultants for help. That sentence answers your question. An agreed household instruction is something you decide together and can show in a kitchen. A question about latch, milk supply or your own recovery needs a professional who can assess it. Any extra fields we suggest for either part are editorial additions, not official steps. ^[4]

One fictional household comparison

Hypothetical example. A first-time employer writes one request: 'Help me with the baby — feed her if I am resting, and tell me whether my milk is coming in properly.' Nobody can act on that safely, because the second half is a judgement the carer is not placed to make. Separated, the agreed instruction reads: during the afternoon rest hour, bring the baby to her and settle her to feed; the household's own safety and hygiene steps, the house rules and the emergency numbers sit alongside it. Separated again, the second half reads as a question in the mother's own words, with the contact who will answer it named beside it. ^{[1] [4]}

What changes is the addressee. In the mixed version, the carer is implicitly asked to reassure the mother about her milk — something HealthHub routes to a hospital's lactation consultants instead. In the separated version, she either makes the call as agreed or the mother raises the question at her next appointment. This is an illustrative editorial comparison of two written notes, not a tested routine, and it comes with no promise about feeding, milk supply or recovery. ^{[5] [4]}

Choose the verified contact

Name the contact you have actually checked. HealthHub's reviewed page directs anyone with problems to their hospital's lactation consultants. HealthHub's directory lists KK Women's and Children's Hospital Lactation Services on 6225 5554 during office hours, and KKH states that mothers with lactation concerns after discharge can contact its lactation team to arrange a clinic appointment or a tele-consultation. HealthHub also notes that the Health Promotion Board hotline cannot provide personal medical or nutritional advice, and tells parents to consult a doctor or dietician instead. Those are general routes, not an individual feeding plan. ^{[4] [5] [6]}

One dated figure is worth confirming while you are writing. MOM's confinement nanny eligibility page advises medical insurance for your nanny and notes that the minimum required coverage rises to $60,000 per year for policies with a start date effective on or after 1 July 2023, so check the current wording on MOM's page before you buy. The rest of the decision is small. Record your agreed household instructions on their own, write each feeding or recovery question separately with the healthcare contact who will answer it, and leave the care decision with that professional. ^[7]

Sources

EduNanny Editorial · AI-assisted research and writing, reviewed by our automated editorial team. Sources checked 2026-10-10. Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration.