After a traumatic birth and postpartum depression, this mum built the centre she wished she had – in Vietnam

A traumatic postpartum experience that included breastfeeding struggles, a NICU stay and postpartum depression led Kun Jiang to create The Joyful Nest – a confinement centre in Vietnam designed to support new mothers. Advertisement Women After a traumatic birth and postpartum depression, this mum built the centre she wished she had – in Vietnam A traumatic postpartum experience that included breastfeeding struggles, a NICU stay and postpartum depression led Kun Jiang to create The Joyful Nest – a confinement centre in Vietnam designed to support new mothers. Kun Jiang was inspired by her postpartum ordeal to build The Joyful Nest, a luxury confinement centre in Vietnam. (Photo: The Joyful Nest) New: You can now listen to articles. This audio is generated by an AI tool. Annie Tan Annie Tan 16 Feb 2026 07:23AM Bookmark Bookmark Share WhatsApp Telegram Facebook Twitter Email LinkedIn Set CNA as your preferred source on Google Add CNA as a trusted source to help Google better understand and surface our content in search results. Read a summary of this article on FAST. Get bite-sized news via a newcards interface. Give it a try. Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FAST FAST There is a new hotspot in Ho Chi Minh City attracting some of the most famous Vietnamese celebrities. Former Miss Universe Vietnam H’Hen Nie, actress Veronica Ngo, supermodel Tuyet Lan, and a whole host of celebrities and influencers have stayed there since it opened in early 2025.No, it is not the latest hotel or yoga retreat. The Joyful Nest is a luxury postpartum centre in Vietnam, said to be the country’s first, founded by Singapore permanent resident Kun Jiang. Online reviews have been so positive that some new mothers from other countries have even shifted their delivery to a hospital in Vietnam or flown in shortly after giving birth to check into the postpartum centre. They come from countries like Cambodia, and even further, like Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.But behind its remarkable success is a personal and painful story. Through tears, the centre’s 42-year-old founder Jiang, who was born in Australia and moved to Singapore in 2013, tells CNA Women how her own traumatic postpartum experience inspired her to build this sanctuary.HER MOTHERHOOD BEGAN IN CRISISIn 2017, a month after Jiang quit her private equity job to start to her own health tech company, she got pregnant.Nine months later, while in the thick of building her first software product, she gave birth. “I had no time to think about postpartum at all,” the entrepreneur recalled. It was an exhausting labour that lasted 24 hours.After discharge, when Jiang tried to breastfeed, she struggled with low milk supply. The new mother frantically searched online for answers. Web sources reassured her that newborns do not need much milk, only colostrum. Jiang with her newborn son. (Photo: Kun Jiang) But her baby kept crying. Jiang called her paediatrician the next day, who suggested supplementing breast milk with formula. She did, but when she brought her baby to the paediatrician on the third day, he was found to be severely dehydrated and had to be warded in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).“I felt like the biggest failure,” Jiang said. “I was completely overwhelmed, crying, crying, crying.“At the waiting area in front of NICU, I put my baby down on a changing table. He was crying. My husband was catatonic, crying, looking at the window.“Then this nurse came, picked up the baby and said, ‘What are you doing? You cannot leave a baby crying like this. You might cause permanent brain damage’,” Jiang recalled, fresh tears streaming down her face. There is no medical evidence that briefly leaving a crying baby alone while a caregiver is overwhelmed causes brain damage. However, this offhand remark at a deeply vulnerable moment scarred Jiang for a long time. I felt like the biggest failure. I was completely overwhelmed, crying, crying, crying. While her baby was in NICU, Jiang engaged a lactation consultant to help with breastfeeding. But two days later, after her baby was discharged, she continued to struggle with it, suffering from bleeding nipples and mastitis, painful breast tissue inflammation.She later discovered her baby had a tongue tie, a condition where the band of tissue under the tongue is too short, tight or restrictive. He also had a lip tie, where the tissue connecting the upper lip to the gum is too tight and thick. Both conditions can interfere with breastfeeding. He underwent a minor surgical procedure to correct that.Jiang herself also had umbilical hernia, a bulge near the belly button caused by muscle weakness; diastasis recti, separation of the abdominal muscles; and weakened pelvic floor muscles. She sought treatment from a physiotherapist.Her mother stayed with her during this period to help. Her mother-in-law also checked into a hotel near her.“My mother is Australian-Chinese, and told me to only eat warm things, and not go out or get cold. My mother-in-law is English and told me to take a walk, show off my baby, visit friends. They were trying to help. But they were giving me completely opposite advice,” Jiang recalled. “Without going through so mu