I'm out of Confinement!

Confinement - The Chinese believes that the body of the mother is 'cold' and weak after childbirth and for the whole of the month after delivery, she has to consume food that is 'heaty' to neutralize it and the fill the body with 'energy'. Along with this belief, there are many other 'rules' that we new mothers have to observe during the month.

For at least 30 days (up to 40 days), there must be:
- No drinking and touching of water
- No stepping out of the house (must stay indoors)
- No blowing of fan/air-con on the mother
- No excessive walking and doing of housework is allowed, must lie down all the time
- No washing of hair and bathing
- No drinking of cold drinks
- No eating of 'cold' food'

I tried my best to follow them. I wanted to experience what my mum had been through some 30 years ago but it was very difficult not to violate these practices esp when my confinement month was in Aug where the weather is hot! I had the air-con on and had occasional showers with herbs. The most difficult to oblige rule is the touching of water. I love to wash my hands and would wash them many many times a day. I (my confinement lady also) find it really very troublesome to ask for boiled cooled water everytime when I needed it for cleaning my hands. To save the trouble, I ended up re-using the same pail of water (which is cold and unclean due to the repeated washing - In what way is this different from tap water?) and then applied the hand sanitizer.

The confinement lady that I've engaged helped out with the housework, take care of the baby and prepare our 3 meals. Things are much easier with her around. I've never taken meals on time (and with lots of vegs) for a long time!

The part of my confinement that I enjoyed most was the chicken essence, cognac brew, red date drink and the tonic soups. They were yummy! :)


That's us with the confinement lady in the photo.

I had to salute the confinement auntie! She is 75 years old and still going strong. She woke up very early in the morning to mop the floor, slept late at night after hand-washing all the clothes and nappy cloths and had to get up for the night feeds. I don't think I could and want to match up to her. One thing though, there were certain practices that the confinement auntie brought along with her from her previous jobs that were not quite the way we want. We understand that this was inevitable and so, didn't really care much as she has been a good help. Now that my confinement's over and auntie's gone, I'm all eager to take over and challenge the baby care - in our way!

Finally...The days of rest are over, the night shift (and unrest?) awaits...


Related Tweets
30 Aug 2009 5:07pm, DC: We are on our own.
21 Aug 2009 7:29 pm, CP: From the end of the beginning to the beginning of the end...


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