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Help for new mothers
By BRIGITTE ROZARIO

Did you know that if your baby has a bump on his head, you can use a hammer to treat it? That's an old wives' tale that you might have heard before and even chuckled at but the truth is it works.

At least, that's what Cecilia Koh says.

She tried it out on her own daughter and found it effective in reducing the bump.

This old wives' tale is just one of several that she has on her BabiesConsult.com website where she also has lots of tips for post-natal and baby care.

Koh, 56, is the founder of the BabiesConsult.com website and the Bouncy Babes childcare centre.

TIPS: Koh offers post-natal and baby care tips on her website.

This Britain-trained nurse and midwife has more than 30 years of experience working with mothers and babies in Britain and Malaysia.

After leaving her job at a local private hospital, Koh co-founded a company that did antenatal classes and post-natal home visits to help mothers and newborn babies.

After a few years she decided to focus more time on her daughter and that's when she founded the day-care centre.

Recently, realising friends and former clients still rely on her for information, Koh decided to set up a website to share the wealth of information she has accumulated over the years with others.

"A lot of my ex-clients still call me and ask my advice on baby care.

When I give them information, I feel the number of people I can reach is very limited.
"So, I thought I'd have a website and put up all this information and let more people look at it so they can learn from it.

"I'm also not young anymore and I feel I have so much information in my head.

"If I don't let people learn and if (anything happens to me), it'll be lost.
So I thought I'd put it on the site and leave it for people to learn," says Koh.

Comprehensive guide

Since June last year, Koh has been checking out other post-natal and babycare sites.
She found that a lot of them are very technical and have a lot of text with very few pictures.
Koh wanted a site that would offer more — lots of photos and step-by-step guides to help new mothers.

This would make it easier for mothers to follow the guides like how to bathe a baby or how to tie a diaper.

"The other thing I wanted to put on the site was to combine both western and traditional practices.

"A lot of us always pooh-pooh traditional practices as not good, and we follow modern practices.

"But you've got to look at the traditional practices too because not everything that is traditional is bad. I learnt this when I had my daughter 10 years ago.

"I trained in London so when my daughter came along and my mum advised me on all the traditional things to give her, I said 'Don't give her all these Chinese medicines.' But eventually I found a lot of the traditional remedies worked.

"I have all these old wives' tales which people have taught me over the years. I've tried them out and found some of them really work.

"This is information that is hard to come by. A lot of us are parents with western educated children and eventually if there's nobody to teach our children the traditional things, all our traditional practices will be lost.

So, that's why I thought if I capture it on the website," says Koh.

Tried and tested

Most of the old wives' tales that Koh puts up she has tried out herself.

Because of a lack of time, currently there are only two of these tales at her website although she has more in store.

Koh says that she would also put up old wives' tales she has not tried out if someone she knows has tried it and confirmed the results.

This way she not only helps mothers try out alternative treatments but also debunks myths.
One of the old wives' tales she debunks at her website is the use of turmeric (kunyit) water for jaundiced babies.

"It's just rubbish and it's dangerous because when you bathe your baby in turmeric water it just makes the baby more yellow.

"Then you cannot define what is the true jaundice and what is the colouring from the turmeric," says Koh.

Confinement tips

Another item she explores on her website is confinement practices.

While there are other websites that offer information on what to do during confinement, most of them are based on an individual's personal experiences.

Having worked with mothers for many years, Koh offers the opinions and experiences of many mothers on her website.

At the moment the website's confinement section is quite focused on Chinese traditions because Koh hasn't had a lot of Malay and Indian clients.

However, she says the concept is the same regardless of race.

While in confinement, some new mothers also have to deal with bossy confinement ladies who dictate what they should and shouldn't do.

All this adds to the stress of having just given birth, says Koh.

According to her, with the information from her website mothers need not feel helpless and powerless.

"A lot of mothers forget that they are the employer, they are the one who is to tell the confinement lady what to do.

"I have a checklist on my website on what you can look for when the baby cries so you can also take the checklist and tell the confinement lady, 'Look I know what you're talking about.'

"You will be in a better position to give instructions with the information on the website and won't have to depend so much on the confinement lady.

"If I can prepare new mothers before the birth of their child by giving them all this information, they will at least know what to do.

"There is even information (on the website) on what to do with the umbilical cord," says Koh.

Knowledge sharing

These post-natal and baby care tips are information that some people know and other don't and probably wouldn't have access to.

But once it's on the site, everybody can learn, informs Koh.

BabiesConsult.com also has a forum where mothers can exchange information and share experiences.

Koh writes all the articles on the site herself.

The only help she gets is with the technical side of her website — a programmer helps her upload the articles and photos.

Once all the articles are uploaded, Koh says she may consider compiling them into a book.

Some of the content is available free while some is only available to members.

Membership is by subscription (RM60 for six months or RM100 for one year, payable by credit card).

"All I am excited about now is putting the information up. I will see how it goes from there.
It could be a hit or it could be a miss," she says, smiling.

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Published by The Star (23rd January 2007)