Joey Zhang knows that many of her clients are wealthy. So rich, in fact, that their homes are often even swankier than Singapore’s five-star Shangri-La Apartments.
But in the weeks immediately after childbirth, the founder of confinement center provider Singjoy says, new parents want more than just their familiar posh surroundings.
Lactation consultants, nannies and chefs on hand around the clock are only some of the luxuries offered by high-end retreats like Zhang’s Singjoy, located at the Shangri-La near the city-state’s Orchard Road shopping mecca and its Botanic Gardens. The care facilities, known as confinement centers, blend Asian techniques for helping mothers recuperate from childbirth with top-end amenities like massages and music therapy. They have seen explosive growth across the region — especially in Singapore, where the superrich from mainland China have been flocking.
The bill for being secluded in postnatal luxury: as much as S$168,800 ($124,000) a month — more than what the average Singapore household makes in a year.
“I’m not young anymore and need more time to do recovery things,” Xiong Xiong, a Singapore Airlines flight attendant, said from the living room of a Shangri-La residence. The 39-year-old spent more than S$23,800 for 28 days at Singjoy. “I wanted to have a good, experienced nanny to help take care of the child. The money was worth it.”
At least 10 confinement centers have opened in Singapore since the first one launched in 2020. Globally, it has become big business. Some providers are being valued at half a billion dollars, with the market projected to almost triple to $18.8 billion by 2029.
It’s far from the reality faced by new mothers in many other parts of the world, where even the most expensive facilities tend to discharge their patients once immediate medical needs are met. In the U.S., centers like the Boram Postnatal Retreat are starting to take off, and the recommended minimum stay is just five days.
'SITTING THE MONTH'
Confinement as a concept is common across much of Asia. Inspired by a Chinese custom known as “sitting the month” after giving birth, it has existed for centuries as a home-based service that has evolved into dedicated facilities in places like Taiwan and South Korea in the 1990s.
In Singapore, where hiring foreign nannies is relatively cheap, families of Chinese descent often employ a person to help look after the baby and cook special foods for the mother, like vinegary pork trotter rich in protein and iron. But while a confinement nanny from Malaysia will set a family back around S$4,500 for 28 days, the cost of staying at a dedicated center could easily be more than quadruple that amount.
When Xiong had her first child seven years ago, she hired a nanny. For the second, she chose to pamper herself: She lived for a month in an airy, two-bedroom suite, with food cooked downstairs so her nanny could focus on her and the baby. Her husband and older child stayed with her; but when family visited from China, she didn’t need to host them, reducing her stress levels.
“They do everything for us here so there’s no need to think about other things,” she said.
The centers can provide a restful shelter with professional help away from cramped homes or well-meaning relatives who pressure new parents with expectations and advice, said Qi Zhai-McCartney, a psychotherapist and counselor at Alliance Counselling in Singapore. Yet a recent study done partly out of Beijing’s Tsinghua University showed that confinement services didn’t provide statistically significant improvements in postpartum depression, she said.
“People feel like they need it because they expect a certain level of hotel standard care,” said Mythili Pandi, a family physician and lactation expert who works with confinement centers. “But is it needed, and is it really a holiday? I don’t think so — nor is it meant to be.”
FIVE-STAR HOTELS
Singjoy, which accommodates about 15 mothers a month, is in discussions with another five-star hotel to expand its services, said Zhang, who declined to name the brand because the deal isn’t finalized. My Queen, a center in the Oasia Resort Sentosa, now has five or six babies a month, up from just one when it opened in 2022, said founder Mei Ling Teo, who foresees growing demand for postpartum care centers.
That demand encouraged PrimeCare International, the operator of luxury maternity and baby care facilities in Hong Kong and mainland China, to open its first overseas venture in Singapore. The center — called Bella Villa and located at Capella, a five-star resort on Sentosa Island off the city-state’s southern coast — charges S$68,800 to S$168,800 a month.
Since its Singapore launch in October, it has had around 25 customers, said founder and CEO Danny Xiang, who previously worked at UBS Group AG in Hong Kong covering health care. The company, which Xiang said was valued at $500 million in its most recent fundraising round, is considering a second branch in the Southeast Asian nation and plans to expand to cities with large Asian populations, such as New York, Los Angeles, London and Paris.
On top of 24-hour, one-on-one nursing care and curated meals, it offers services aimed at helping moms recover their body shape, including postpartum vaginal tightening. Staff are also required to learn skills like yoga and art to cater to wealthy customers’ interests.
“We serve our customers just like queens,” Xiang said.