KUALA LUMPUR: The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry is looking to develop an accreditation for post-natal care practitioners.
National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) director-general Datuk Dr Siti Norlasiah Ismail said this during its Mamacare Carnival at Medan Mara here today.
The ministry is now working together with the Health Ministry to regulate practices in the field of traditional and complementary medicine (TCM).
This will include the current 591 practitioners under Mamacare, a post-natal training programme.
Among others, Norlasiah said efforts to upgrade the industry including raising the bar on the training programmes.
She shared that those working in the field are earning about RM3,000 a month and those running confinement homes can chalk up to RM20,000 a month.
As these entrepreneurs require partners or employees with varied skills, she said the mission now is to expand the skills of these confinement ladies to include beauty, cooking and spa.
Norlasiah further said the ministry’s application for a National Occupational Skill Standard to facilitate the upgrade has been approved by the Labour Department.
“We are now working with the TCM council under the Health Ministry. We are operating as a team to develop the module for the course, rules and regulations as well as guidelines for practitioners. “The certification from the Health Ministry would be in place once the TCM Act is passed in Parliament, in September,” she added.
Norlasiah said the Mamacare programme would among others, be governed under the act. Apart from that, the ministry would also be looking at having a training centre for women to help them on their way to becoming professional practitioners.
“We would be beefing up our facilities to accommodate this. We are also looking at centres and institutions which can offer the programme as to not limit the industry’s reach.
“We are looking to have at least 3,000 post-natal practitioners once the system is in place and the course is in the market,” said Norlasiah.
She added that the ministry was also in the midst of determining the cost of the upgraded courses as it is currently is heavily subsidised with a government allocation of RM2,000 per head for the programme is targeted at poor and single mothers.
Norlasiah also said that as the industry was booming and the next trend of having professional practitioners travelling to Vietnam, Brunei or Dubai to offer post-natal care services is a possibility.
She concluded that the ministry has even shared the Mamacare module with Oxford University to show how traditional knowledge and customs could empower women for better days ahead.