throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends;

A note from the what am I, site hostess? This story of chinese postpartum

traditions is only one citation; I have heard that the postpartum doula does

very similar things to what we are trained in Ayurveda from other reports,

favoring very valuable focus with alkalyzing and herbal broths, heat treatments,

lots of rest, massage, and household support. These things are GREAT! And she

tends to be older, her children grown and free to live in with the family and

really help guide the scene. And well paid too! The 40 eggs a day, though,

that is among traditions which need to go! WE do best avoiding eggs alltogether.

Interesting report, Thanks Adrienne! Martha

 

New moms in China rejecting ritual

 

By Ching-Ching Ni

Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times

Published May 22, 2004

 

BEIJING -- For Wang Zan, nine months of pregnancy and a Caesarean

delivery were difficult enough. The last thing she wanted was a

monthlong ordeal that her mother and generations of mothers before

her had to endure afterward.

 

According to this tradition, the woman must stay in bed behind closed

windows, cover her head, give up bathing, washing her hair and even

brushing her teeth. She must avoid cold water, cold food, strangers,

even other pregnant women, for fear they might somehow take away her

breast milk.

 

She must stuff herself with boiled eggs--as many as 40 a day--brown

sugar and buckets of chicken and fish soup. She must minimize

talking, reading, crying, anything that might deplete her energy or

damage her ability to produce breast milk.

 

And she must live like this for a full cycle of the moon.

 

Older folks in China call it zuo yuezi, literally sitting through the

month.

 

Younger people see it more like incarceration.

 

" I was really worried that my relatives would make me follow these

rules, " said Wang, 29, an office worker who gave birth to her son

earlier this month. " They definitely won't allow me to shower for a

month. I wouldn't be able to stand that. "

 

The clash between the old and the new lifestyles has given rise to a

new kind of hotel, a place where a mother can spend her month away

from the watchful eyes of family elders. It is staffed with doctors

and nurses who help the mother reinterpret the old rules without

giving up modern amenities.

 

" We are between a hospital and a home, " said Pan Xin, a Beijing-based

physician who founded China's first New Mother Service Center in

Beijing suburb. " A hospital won't allow her to stay this long after

the baby is born because she is not sick. A home won't be able to

give her all the professional help we can offer here. "

 

With an estimated 20 million babies born in China every year, about

five times the number in the United States, this nation's baby-care

market is one of the fastest growing in the world. Western companies,

from makers of disposable diapers to producers of infant food and all

kinds of skin care and toiletry products, have made easy converts of

Chinese parents eager to lavish the latest modern concept on their

children.

 

The new mommy centers offer the best of the new and the old.

 

" I like it here, " said Bao Yanzhen, Wang's mother-in-law, who

inspected the facility three times before allowing her son to sign

his wife up for two weeks. " They have swimming pools for the baby, a

professional cooking staff. It's better than what we can give her at

home. "

 

For Wang's mother, Cai Jinli, it's like night and day compared with

what she went through after she delivered her daughter.

 

" I was bored to death, " Cai said. " It was so hot. There was no air

conditioning and no open window. I was soaking in sweat. My skin was

breaking out. It was pure suffering. "

 

For about $360 a week, her daughter gets her own room with a queen-

size bed, a crib for the baby and a pullout couch for relatives. She

also gets a television set, telephone, refrigerator, air

conditioning, a private bathroom and, most important, her own shower.

 

There were reasons for the zuo yuezi discipline. Older Chinese lived

under much harsher conditions. Taking a shower often meant dipping in

a bucket of water out in the middle of the yard. The most nutritious

food probably was a basket of freshly hatched eggs. Zuo yuezi became

a way to protect new mothers.

 

Things are different today.

 

" We have to explain to them that brushing your teeth is not only not

harmful but good for the mother's health, " Pan said. " Bathing, too,

is good for them, because if the mother smells bad the baby won't

want to breast-feed. "

 

It's not an idea all Chinese families are ready to accept. Since

Pan's hotel opened in 1999, many others have tried to copy its

approach but have failed to overcome tradition.

 

Business for Pan was tough last year, because people stayed away from

any kind of hospital out of fear of catching severe acute respiratory

syndrome, SARS. Add that to the superstition that the Year of the

Goat was a bad time to have a baby, and it explains why the center

almost shut down.

 

This year business is booming. The fear of SARS has eased, and the

Chinese consider the Year of the Monkey a good time to procreate. Pan

moved into a new building, enlarging from one floor and 20 rooms to

four floors and 60 rooms.

 

" The Chinese population is so huge, " Pan said. " As long as people

continue to have babies and as long as our living standards continue

to improve, demand for better health-care services like ours can only

grow. "

 

 

2004, Chicago Tribune

[Guest guest]

Wow thanks, I really enjoyed reading that. It is so

interesting to learn about other cultures and their

traditions.

So if there are only 4 members, who are they?

Adrienne, hello to you.....

martha, myself and who else??

Ladies bear with me, we are moving this next week and

i anticipate my internet will be up and running about

a week from then, which means I'll be up for

contributing input in greater detail soon. However i

won't be officially unplugged until next Tuesday

so....until then...

Our group is meeting tonite, so martha, i will follow

up on my last letter to you. Thank you for the

permission to post the lists, these women will surly

be inspired by the information.

Blessings to you all

Rebecca

 

Hi Rebecca and All;

Saroj and I are the other members; Saroj is a wonderful mama whose youngest goes

to college next fall; she raised her kids much on home schooling and living on

the rivers here. Devotee of Guru Mai, and has a beautiful longwhite braid, to

which I aspire someday. She is a lactation counselor, pre/postnatal yoga

instructor, hypnobirthing instructor, childbirth educator and has all the

midwifery training here except her birth managements, on hold in respect of her

personal energy needs, wisely.

 

All of you, when yo send messages, please take care to delete the text from

previous messages so we don't have too much stuff to sort thru, ok? Thanks.

Taks care with your move, I hopeit goes smoothly.

 

I;ll be looking forward to hearing of the NOrth Carolina AyurDoula progress; my

love to all my dear friends there.

MarthA