What is Confinement?
It is a postnatal practice aimed at helping a new mum recover from pregnancy, labour and birth. It also means the new mum and baby are confined at home. For Chinese, the period lasts for a whole month, which will coincide with baby’s first month. During this time, the new mums have a lot of taboos and restrictions.
When I had Mr K and Ms C, on both occasions my mother flew over from Singapore to give me a helping hand for 6 weeks. Normally, your mother or any experienced female elder (maybe your mother-in-law) will offer to help. In Singapore, if you have no one to help, you can employ a confinement lady for a month. This confinement lady is usually well trained and they will cook and look after you.
Confinement starts from the moment you are coming from the hospital. In some cases, straight away after birth. Not all new Chinese mums will follow the restrictions – it all depends on yourself. I know if I didn’t follow the customs, my mother would have nagged and scolded me until I listened. Luckily, I had Mr K in winter time which I will explain in a minute.
Can’t do list:
- No washing hair for a whole month. Yes, I am not joking! You won’t want to stand nor sleep next to me! I didn’t wash for the whole month and when I comb my hair, my orange comb was covered in stains! Luckily, it was during winter time, so I hardly sweat. Can you imagine doing this in a hot country!
- No seafood such as prawn, crab etc. They are considered toxic/harmful food to your body especially when you have C section.
- No ‘cooling’ fruits such as pineapple, cucumber etc.
- No ‘windy’ food such as onion etc.
- No air con nor fan! If you are in a hot country, can you imagine how hot you will be! When I had Ms C, it was so hot and I had to draw my curtain and stay in the darkened room to cool myself.
The elderly believed avoiding these will help you avoid health problems such as rheumatism and headaches when you get old.
Must do list:
- Cover yourself from head to toes. Yes, you need to wear long trousers, sock etc.
- Bathe or clean your body with water infused with herbs.
- Confinement diet
There are a huge list of confinement food. From what I know, this consists of these few simple ingredients: ginger, sesame oil and black vinegar as they help to get rid of wind in the body.
My mother had cooked me a variety of foods such as lean pork meat with ginger and sesame oil, sesame oil chicken, fish soup, spinach soup and other normal and healthy meals. My mother-in-law cooked me ginger and black vinegar pig trotters which I had to return back to her. I just couldn’t stomach it! They say it’s good to get rid of all the toxins in your body. But the thought of seeing the trotters really put me off! Also I don’t eat pork liver, kidneys or pig stomach. These are iron rich and great for replacing blood loss!
I am at a loss for words to describe how I felt during my confinement. I felt dirty because I was not allowed to shower and wash my hair and also not allowed to leave home. Yes, for the whole month, I am at home with my children. My husband had to do all the shopping and errands including registering their names and GP.
I am so glad to have done my duties of having two children and hopefully I won’t need to go through this again!
I think I’d actually quite like to stay home for a month, I was out an about at 4 days after W and looking back it was too soon really x
I really enjoy your posts. It’s great to learn about other cultures. I’m not sure I could cope with confinement, especially not being able to shower for a whole month!
Some i agree with but not being able to shower…….no way could I manage that!!
Wow I don’t think I would manage to do that, I go a little crazy after a day of not washing my hair! Amazing traditions though, so different and always amazing to learn about. x
This sounds too familiar! We have something similar going on in India as well. But I did not follow it when I had J 🙂
A shower is my one daily essential, there’s no way I could have done without that for a month.
It is very interesting to learn about different traditions and cultures. Having a shower and washing my hair was one of the first things I wanted to do after giving birth.
Wow. Did you really follow all this? Chinese traditions really endure, there was a traditional Lying In period in England but it phased out before the Victorian period. Not sure I would want to, I had no help and was up and about doing school runs in 2 days of giving birth to the twins :S REALLY tough but no choice.
you always amaze me with your tradition posts love how they are soo interesting x
I didn’t realise there were so many restrictions. I can’t imagine not washing my hair for a month-I’d want to shave it off after a week! Very interesting post.
What a custom….the thought of not washing for more than a day fills me with dread!
once again ( i think i say this every time i read one of your posts) this is so interesting!! I would never have known about lots of these things had it not been for your blog so thank you! xx
Wow I cannot think of anything worse than not washing my hair (even for a day). So interesting to read your posts x
I LOVE reading these posts of yours and finding out all about chinese customs and traditions. I had absolutely no idea there was a period of confinement following birth, don’t think i could cope with being confined to the house for 6 weeks and not washing my hair! xxx
Not sure I could cope with not washing my hair for a whole month, however, I like the sound of the Dad doing all of the errands!
I always love reading your posts about Chinese customs, it’s fascinating 🙂
Blimey, fair play to you for sticking to your guns and doing what you felt right. May I ask if you were allowed visitors during the month? Thanks so much for sharing – very interesting to get an insight into cultures. x