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How I survived and ate, ate, ate during postnatal 'lockdown'
By Michelle Qiao |
April 22, 2012, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
"DID you have the traditional month of bed rest?" That's what I was asked most frequently by expatriate friends after I gave birth to my son some months ago. They thought I would die of boredom and said it was one of the reasons not to be a Chinese woman.
The month of bed rest is known as zuo yuezi, or "sitting out a month," a strict Chinese custom of having new mothers rest for a month or two at home (never going outside), often under the care of their mother or mother-in-law.
It's postnatal "lockdown."
Well, yes. I practiced a month of traditional postnatal respite, but I didn't follow all the ancient rules. I took a modern approach - and after two weeks I even sneaked outdoors for afternoon walks and felt great. My cousin warned walking would make my womb "fall."
The rules
Yuezi involves a lot of rules on diet and "must nots" on activity because women are said to be terribly vulnerable during this period and can damage their health for the rest of their lives.
So, no showers, no hair washing, no brushing teeth, no watching TV, no shedding tears (big emotions are unhealthy) and no cold food. The head must always be covered to prevent chills, all windows must be closed.
It's bed rest all the time.
Most urban women don't go along with all this but they religiously stay indoors.
Just before my natural delivery, biochemist and popular science writer Fang Zhouzi posted an article criticizing yuezi as one of China's worst traditional customs and unnecessary in the age of modern medicine.
My friend Wang Hui endured traditional yuezi at her parents' insistence. She found it inconvenient but not unbearable and she said it was good for her health.
"During that month I did not shower, I mostly stayed in bed and only washed my hair once - a victory after arguing with my parents," says Wang, former employee of a multinational company.
"My father said I would have head pain or lower back pain if I didn't obey all the rules," she said. "I had no freedom but did recover well."
In my case, I hired a professional nanny for me and the baby, I ate lots of nutritious food and rested. But I regularly bathed and opened windows.
I was careful not to catch cold. I used a special rubber tooth brush so my fragile gums would not be injured.
"Some practices make sense but some were for ancient times," says Dr Ren Ling, an obstetrician at the Air Force Hospital in Beijing. "A women's body is fully open, especially after natural birth, so it's easy for 'chill' to invade. But if you quickly blow-dry hair and keep warm it's okay to shower and wash hair. And fresh air is good for mother and baby."
Soup, soup and more soup
Being a new mother is a busy job. And a new Chinese mother is especially busy, drinking lots of medicinal soup every day.
Chinese believe drinking a lot of hot soup prevents dehydration, keeps mothers warm and promotes production of breast milk by increasing blood circulation. Mothers also eat a lot of eggs, meat and fish for protein to build strength and repair muscle.
I went along.
My daily menu included light salty soup, sweet soup and bitter-sweet soup, all with different functions in Chinese food therapy.
Morning began with sweet soup made of brown sugar and glutinous rice wine and boiled eggs, all to warm the body and increase breast milk. I drank hawthorn and brown sugar tea or tea made with Chinese dates, dried longan and loquats. These are supposed to help the uterus recover.
Lunch was a big bowl of greasy soup of meat, chicken or pig's feet. It's supposed to improve breast milk.
In the afternoon I drank the legendary herbal decoction Shenghua Tang made of peach kernels, licorice root and ginger that helps the body expel tissue and mucus after childbirth.
Night was also soupy. The nanny prepared papaya soup with milk and white fungus.
For me, yuezi was a month of hot, hot soup and almost nonstop eating and drinking.
To boost milk production for my growing, hungry son, my nanny, a 45-year-old woman from Sichuan Province, suggested a universal herbal remedy called Cui Nai Yin from China's famous century-old shop Tong Ren Tang.
My mother bought 10 bags of the mixture and a big electric cooking pot to make herbal soup with pork leg bones. A fourth soup, bitter and pork-flavored was added to my menu.
It was bitter medicine, but seemed to increase my breast milk. At first I had some trouble producing milk. Herbal medicine soup improves circulation and helps the milk flow easily.
Thanks to tech
Breast feeding is beautiful but also tiring and sometimes boring. It's not easy for a modern mother to sit in the same posture and face a language-less baby for so many hours a day. So, I tapped into technology and shopped online. I attached my Ipad to a music stand so I could watch movies or lectures about Roman architecture. I bought a mini Bluetooth music speaker that I could control remotely without shifting my position.
Music such as Sia's "My Love" from the movie "Twilight" was perfect for a peaceful afternoon of breast feeding at a sunny window.
The confinement transformed me, who had only enjoyed shopping in real shops, into a Taobao master. The delivery man knocked almost every day. After two weeks of yuezi, I had to sneak out. I believe a baby needs a mother who is physically and mentally healthy and happy.
It was only an afternoon walk but it was great.
The warm sunlight, fresh air and even a look at a rainbow of goodies in the supermarket revived my pleasure in being alive. Freedom is precious but sometimes we only appreciate it when we lose it.
The monthlong "lockdown" passed quickly as the soups were consumed and the baby was growing. I felt lucky to be a Chinese woman, to be so carefully tended in this special period. I was even luckier to be a 21st century Chinese woman who chose a postpartum recovery that broke and bent but also obeyed some of the old rules.
The month of bed rest is known as zuo yuezi, or "sitting out a month," a strict Chinese custom of having new mothers rest for a month or two at home (never going outside), often under the care of their mother or mother-in-law.
It's postnatal "lockdown."
Well, yes. I practiced a month of traditional postnatal respite, but I didn't follow all the ancient rules. I took a modern approach - and after two weeks I even sneaked outdoors for afternoon walks and felt great. My cousin warned walking would make my womb "fall."
The rules
Yuezi involves a lot of rules on diet and "must nots" on activity because women are said to be terribly vulnerable during this period and can damage their health for the rest of their lives.
So, no showers, no hair washing, no brushing teeth, no watching TV, no shedding tears (big emotions are unhealthy) and no cold food. The head must always be covered to prevent chills, all windows must be closed.
It's bed rest all the time.
Most urban women don't go along with all this but they religiously stay indoors.
Just before my natural delivery, biochemist and popular science writer Fang Zhouzi posted an article criticizing yuezi as one of China's worst traditional customs and unnecessary in the age of modern medicine.
My friend Wang Hui endured traditional yuezi at her parents' insistence. She found it inconvenient but not unbearable and she said it was good for her health.
"During that month I did not shower, I mostly stayed in bed and only washed my hair once - a victory after arguing with my parents," says Wang, former employee of a multinational company.
"My father said I would have head pain or lower back pain if I didn't obey all the rules," she said. "I had no freedom but did recover well."
In my case, I hired a professional nanny for me and the baby, I ate lots of nutritious food and rested. But I regularly bathed and opened windows.
I was careful not to catch cold. I used a special rubber tooth brush so my fragile gums would not be injured.
"Some practices make sense but some were for ancient times," says Dr Ren Ling, an obstetrician at the Air Force Hospital in Beijing. "A women's body is fully open, especially after natural birth, so it's easy for 'chill' to invade. But if you quickly blow-dry hair and keep warm it's okay to shower and wash hair. And fresh air is good for mother and baby."
Soup, soup and more soup
Being a new mother is a busy job. And a new Chinese mother is especially busy, drinking lots of medicinal soup every day.
Chinese believe drinking a lot of hot soup prevents dehydration, keeps mothers warm and promotes production of breast milk by increasing blood circulation. Mothers also eat a lot of eggs, meat and fish for protein to build strength and repair muscle.
I went along.
My daily menu included light salty soup, sweet soup and bitter-sweet soup, all with different functions in Chinese food therapy.
Morning began with sweet soup made of brown sugar and glutinous rice wine and boiled eggs, all to warm the body and increase breast milk. I drank hawthorn and brown sugar tea or tea made with Chinese dates, dried longan and loquats. These are supposed to help the uterus recover.
Lunch was a big bowl of greasy soup of meat, chicken or pig's feet. It's supposed to improve breast milk.
In the afternoon I drank the legendary herbal decoction Shenghua Tang made of peach kernels, licorice root and ginger that helps the body expel tissue and mucus after childbirth.
Night was also soupy. The nanny prepared papaya soup with milk and white fungus.
For me, yuezi was a month of hot, hot soup and almost nonstop eating and drinking.
To boost milk production for my growing, hungry son, my nanny, a 45-year-old woman from Sichuan Province, suggested a universal herbal remedy called Cui Nai Yin from China's famous century-old shop Tong Ren Tang.
My mother bought 10 bags of the mixture and a big electric cooking pot to make herbal soup with pork leg bones. A fourth soup, bitter and pork-flavored was added to my menu.
It was bitter medicine, but seemed to increase my breast milk. At first I had some trouble producing milk. Herbal medicine soup improves circulation and helps the milk flow easily.
Thanks to tech
Breast feeding is beautiful but also tiring and sometimes boring. It's not easy for a modern mother to sit in the same posture and face a language-less baby for so many hours a day. So, I tapped into technology and shopped online. I attached my Ipad to a music stand so I could watch movies or lectures about Roman architecture. I bought a mini Bluetooth music speaker that I could control remotely without shifting my position.
Music such as Sia's "My Love" from the movie "Twilight" was perfect for a peaceful afternoon of breast feeding at a sunny window.
The confinement transformed me, who had only enjoyed shopping in real shops, into a Taobao master. The delivery man knocked almost every day. After two weeks of yuezi, I had to sneak out. I believe a baby needs a mother who is physically and mentally healthy and happy.
It was only an afternoon walk but it was great.
The warm sunlight, fresh air and even a look at a rainbow of goodies in the supermarket revived my pleasure in being alive. Freedom is precious but sometimes we only appreciate it when we lose it.
The monthlong "lockdown" passed quickly as the soups were consumed and the baby was growing. I felt lucky to be a Chinese woman, to be so carefully tended in this special period. I was even luckier to be a 21st century Chinese woman who chose a postpartum recovery that broke and bent but also obeyed some of the old rules.
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