What food to avoid during pregnancy

When you find that you are pregnant, you make want to make a few changes to your lifestyle for the healthy development of your baby. For example, you may need to stop alcohol and smoking. 

You may also want to switch to a healthier diet for the good of your baby. Indeed, many health authorities around the world also recommend women to avoid certain food during pregnancy. 

Alcohol

First and foremost, you should avoid alcohol. Pregnant women should stay away from alcohol as it increases the risk of miscarriage and stillbirth. Many studies have confirmed that even a small amount can negatively impact the brain development of your baby.

It can also cause fetal alcohol syndrome. This syndrome involves facial deformities, heart defects and mental retardation.

Uncooked or undercooked fish or meat

First, any uncooked or undercooked fish or meat is not allowed. Uncooked seafood and rare or undercooked beef or poultry should be avoided during pregnancy because of the risk of contamination with coliform bacteria, toxoplasmosis and salmonella.

Soft cheese

Do not eat soft cheese made from unpasteurized milk. This includes Brie, Feta, Camembert and Roquefort.

Cheese made from unpasteurized milk may contain the virus E.coli or Listeria.

Caffeine

Coffee, tea, chocolate and some soft drinks have a high level of caffeine. Pregnant women should limit their consumption to one or two cups in a day.

This is because the caffeine can be passed to the growing fetus very quickly. Furthermore, the unborn baby do not have the enzyme to metabolize the caffeine, causing the caffeine level to build up.

According to one study published by the National Institute of Health, high maternal caffeine intake during pregnancy is associated with the risk of low birth weight in babies.

Caffeine is also a diuretic, this will excerberate frequent urination that pregnant women face. 

You may want to refer to what foods to avoid during pregnancy for a complete list of food to avoid during pregnancy

Maid agency in Singapore

Because of high profit (maid agency may be able to earn $800 to $2000 per transaction), maid agency industry in Singapore is easy to attract who just want to make some quick money and disappear.

But now this has become harder and harder, thanks to effort by government to improve the service standard of the maid agencies in Singapore On its website, the Ministry of Manpower provides important information about each licensed maid agency in Singapore

First and foremost, it provides reviews of employers who had engaged the maid agency before. This could help the new employers who are looking for maid for the first time. It also encourages maid agency to invest time and effort to improve their customer service.

Many people may believe that the more established one usually provides good service because of the belief that only good one can survive the test of time. What we have found out from the MOM data  does not agree with this point of view. For example, there are a few maid agencies with 10 years of history has a rating of 3.2 which is much below the average.


Furthermore, transaction volume is not able to tell the quality of service as well. We found that average service rating of those big companies (defined as company that has a transaction volume of 1000 per year) is much lower than the average. For example, one company has applied more than 1162 work permits for maid in the last one year, but its service rating is much lower than at 3.3 only.

To select the best maid agency, the prospective maid employer should look at the customer service rating directly as all these are based on true feedback of the employers and is collected and published by the government. This makes all these data reliable.

The employer can also look at the retention rate. The higher the better as it is an indication of maid's performance and employer's satisfaction about maid's performance. Based on our observation, there is only one company that achieve 100%. It is believed that this company will not be able to maintain this high rate as it places more maid with employer. It is considered good if a maid agency can achieve more than 65% of retention rate.

Last is to look at the transfer rate, The lower the value, the better the service of the maid agency. There are many agencies which achieve 0% for the transfer rate. Hence, prospective maid employer do not need to give too much weight for this parameter when selecting the best maid agency.

Income Requirement For Hiring Maid

To hire a maid in Singapore, you will need to have a stable annual income as the Ministry of Manpower will consider this when it process the application of work permit for the foreign domestic helper. It has been estimated by many maid agencies that the income requirement should be around $30000 per year.

To help needy families, elderly or disabled person in applying for work permit for maid, the ministry of manpower in Singapore also has two schemes joint income scheme and sponsorship income that families can apply under which.

Joint Income Scheme
Under the Joint Income Scheme, the employer can combine income with one of his or her immediate family members (rather than spouse). This immediate family member must live in the same residential address as the main applicant.

This immediate family member can be a sibling, relative, parent or child.

Sponsorship Scheme
This scheme is for senior citizens who are not earning an income.
Under this scheme, an employer can apply for a work permit for domestic helper based on the income of up to two sponsors. The sponsor can be employer’s children or children’s spouse, grandchildren or grandchildren’s spouse, or employer’s sibling.

Other than the income requirement, the employer may need to meet other requirement such as mentally fit in order to fulfill the role as an employer.

Source: Income requirement for employing maid.

Maid Agency Fee in Singapore

Maid agency fee in Singapore

There are about 1300 licensed maid agencies in Singapore, these maid agencies offer different packages. For one maid agencies, the package for maids of different nationalities is also different. Because of this, many employers find it confusing when they consider the maid agency fee.

For maid agencies, the following will usually determine their package fee:
1.  Recruitment cost. Maid agencies in maid’s home countries charge employment agencies in Singapore a fee. This fee may vary from one maid agency to another as there is no standard recruitment fee in maid’s home countries.
2. Operating cost. Many maid agencies are operated at the shopping center like Bukit Timah shopping center, Lucky Plaza, City Plaza in Singapore. Other than the rental fee, maid agent will also need to hire manpower for customer service.
Because of intense competition, many maid agencies also spend a lot of money on advertising their service.

Government restricting factor
For Filipino maid and Indonesian maid, the maid agencies are not allowed to charge maid a high placement fee. Because of this, part of recruitment cost, in the end, will be bear by the employer. This explains why agency fee for Filipino maid and Indonesian maid are usually higher.

Profit consideration
It has been estimated that the maid agency will be able to earn $800 to $2000 if they are able to successfully place a maid in Singapore.

Source: maid agency fee in Singapore

菲律宾女佣

据估计，新加坡有接近24万个女佣，其中有7万个女佣来自菲律宾。

在今年的五月份，菲律宾大使馆要求女佣介绍所将菲律宾女佣的最低工资从550调高到570，说是因为汇率的问题。相对于上一次调整，这次的涨幅较小，上一次调整从500调高到550。这一次的调整也让菲律宾女佣的工资成为最高工资的女佣，比缅甸女佣高出3成。比印尼女佣则要高出20新币。

当然，如果比较其他国家女佣的工资，菲律宾女佣的工资其实也不算高。据说，菲律宾女佣的工资在中国可以高达2万人民币。

菲律宾女佣，相对于其他国籍女佣，个性比较乐观。她们也比较有组织，时常周末会跟朋友相聚，分享食物或者其他工作点滴。据一些雇主反应，女佣周末放假回来，总学到一些应付雇主的新方式。

由于曾经是美国的殖民地，菲律宾人的英语水平比较好，这使得她们比较容易于新加坡雇主沟通。这可以说是她们较高工资的主要原因。

如果你想聘请菲律宾，可以参考菲律宾女佣，有很多菲律宾女佣供你选择。

缅甸女佣

缅甸女佣由于工资较低而且性情比较温驯，越来越多的新加坡雇主更愿意聘请缅甸女佣。

缅甸女佣的基本工资为430，相对于其他女佣要少120到140新币，这对很多家庭来说都是不小的节省。

缅甸女佣性情比较温驯，这也使得她们容易成为一些雇主虐待的对象。最新的一个就发生在今年的6月份（6月是见报时间，具体应该更早）根据我个人的读报的统计，女佣被虐待的案例中，绝大多数是缅甸女佣。离乡背井来新加坡打工，却受到雇主无理对待。雇主的这些行为应受到法律的制裁，女佣的遭遇则让人无比同情。

相对于其他国籍女佣，缅甸女佣的英语能力比较差。也因此很难按照雇主的要求来做事情。如果遇到没有耐心的雇主，很可能就会经常受雇主的责骂了。

我家曾经有一个缅甸女佣，拿着缅甸护照。可不会缅甸话，按她自己说。是因为家住于缅甸印度边界，然后缅甸护照比较容易拿，所以就在中介的帮助下拿了缅甸护照。

如果你想聘请缅甸女佣，可以点击缅甸女佣，有很多女佣供你选择。

新加坡女佣

据估计，新加坡有接近20万个女佣。基本上每五户家庭就有一个女佣。在我住的那层楼里有10个家庭，有三个家庭有聘请女佣。


相对于其他国家和地区，在新加坡聘请女佣的费用比较低。菲律宾女佣的基本工资相对其他国籍女佣要高，但也只是570新元。相对于她们在中国一个月一两万人民币的薪水，570新元实在是太少。 在新加坡，印尼女佣的最低工资则为550新币，缅甸女佣更低，为430（有说450）。

在新加坡，很多家庭都是夫妻都有工作。新加坡人工作勤劳，因此也没有什么时间打理家务，做饭，照顾小孩。很次这些任务都交给了女佣。也使得很多家庭都非常依赖女佣。

由于年老的父母通常不与儿女住一起，很多儿女为了照顾身体不好的老人，也聘请女佣。

除了女佣基本工资，雇主也需要支付女佣税以及女佣一切其他开销。这就包括了三餐，水电，日用品，医疗保健。如果全部加起来，大概可能是在1000新元左右。相比一些高学历女性的收入，1000新元不到他们收入的五分之一。

如果你想聘请女佣，你可以访问新加坡女佣查看女佣个人资料。