Baby boom drives up price of maternity maids

(Ecns.cn) -- With demand rising sharply in the Year of the Dragon baby boom, the price of hiring a professional maid to care for a mother and her newborn during the critical first month has exceeded 15,000 yuan (US$2,375) in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, reports the Beijing News.

Now that the maids' incomes are often higher than many white-collar workers, the public is complaining that the household service industry is driving up prices too high and making the service unreachable.

Nevertheless, experts argue it is normal market behavior provoked by the growing need for experienced caretakers, and that the government should stand back and let the market adjust itself.

Nervous mothers-to-be

According to an old Chinese tradition, there are many prohibitions for new mothers: women cannot bathe, brush their teeth, wash their hair or read books during the first month after delivery, for example. The practice is called confinement, and dates back to at least 2,000 years ago.

Because most modern women know little about it, however, certified maternity maids, or "yuesao," are valuable helpers during confinement. Unlike ordinary nannies, they are also knowledgeable in massage, pediatrics, family relations and postpartum depression, and provide intensive care during the one-month postnatal period.

Zhang Yu, 27, a white-collar employee in Beijing, has been pregnant for more than seven months, and is now anxious because the price of hiring a professional maid is changing every week.

On March 20, Zhang went to a household service agency near her home, where she learned it would cost 11,800 yuan (US$1,868) to hire an experienced certified maid. The price was only 6,800 yuan (US$1,076) just four months ago, she said.

Yet Zhang's mother has repeatedly warned her of things to avoid in the first month after having the baby, such as exposure to the sun and wind, contact with water, reading books, watching television and walking barefoot.

Zhang has taken that advice to heart, and fears that she and her husband will not be able to manage the situation on their own, so they have decided to find a professional caretaker from a domestic service agency.

Like Zhang, many mothers-to-be also worry about the first month after delivery, but mostly value professional maids for their ability to stimulate lactation and prepare a scientific diet.

Are they really professional?

It is widely believed that the term "yuesao" was created by Liu Jingyun, general manager of the first company to provide maternity maid services in Beijing.

Liu started the company in 1999 because of a growing demand for intensive care from new mothers working in the capital whose families were too far away to help.

At first, Liu recruited unemployed women with personal experience in caring for new mothers – some of whom were retired nurses and nutritionists – and gave them a month's training course on the latest techniques in mother and childcare. The business soon became a huge success.

From the very beginning, Liu set the price of hiring a maternity maid about three times higher than an ordinary nanny in an effort to distinguish the two.

Later, with even more specific training courses and certifications, the value of maternity maids continued to increase.

Cheng Minfeng, a childcare nanny with six years of experience, revealed that she is taking training courses from a yuesao company and hopes to get certified as a maternity maid.

According to Cheng, the price of hiring a senior childcare nanny is only about 4,000 yuan (US$633) a month, but that of a junior maternity maid is at least 4,800 yuan (US$760). Her income will double or even triple in several years when she is more experienced, Cheng added.

Currently, few maternity maids are former nurses or nutritionists, however. They usually stopped after acquiring a little knowledge from the training courses, but are still far from professional, said Li Dajing, director of the Beijing Domestic Service Association.

Industry fueled by ignorance

On the issue of the soaring prices for postnatal service, Li commented that it is only a reflection of the supply-demand relationship at the moment, and that the government should not step in.

Zhang Rongya, an obstetrician in Beijing, said mothers-to-be should try to learn the knowledge of postnatal care themselves and consult their own mothers and doctors whenever they have questions.

There is no need to spend a large amount of money hiring maternity maids, because babies are easy to take care of in the first month, added Zhang.

Tang Xiaohui delivered her baby in January. She recalled that the family only hired an ordinary nanny to take care of housework such as food shopping, cooking and cleaning.

And since Tang had learned how to take care of babies from books, she has managed to mostly care for her newborn on her own.

According to a survey conducted by the Beijing News, most new mothers hire maternity maids because they know little about how to take care of themselves and babies. However, over 20 percent of these maids were from rural areas and 46 percent were laid-off employees who had received only limited training.