Antenatal Practices during Confinement

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Since it was the Spring Harvest Festival yesterday, I spent the afternoon with my MIL and she started sharing with me some of the things she had to go through during her confinement period. I know the advice is well intended, but I honestly don’t think I’ll be able to adhere to all of them. She had said there was even more but she wouldn’t tell me about it because she knows it would be too much for me. Well, I didn’t have the heart to tell her than what little she told me was already too much for me.

Here are some of the tips she shared with me:

The Chinese have a belief that all of life hangs in a balance between two opposites – the Yin and the Yang. When talking about health, the two opposites are “heatiness” and “coolness”. In the ordinary lives of most people, the bigger problem of the two is often being too “heaty”. To combat “heatiness” we are required to eat foods that are considered “cooling” and do things that will help to “cool” down the body.

In the case of a pregnant woman, after birth, she has lost a lot of her “heat”, so her danger is not from being “overheated” but from being “overcooled”. That is why she is made to eat foods like ginger and drink fluids like wine and other alcohol to help regain the body’s heat. There is an additional belief that these will also help to get rid of “wind” in the body and certain foods will also remove the stale blood. I’m not sure how the wind got in, but I suppose it was during the process of giving birth. As for the stale blood, I think they are referring to the vaginal discharge that occurs after birth.

To help the mother regain her heat after birth, she has to avoid bathing and washing her hair as these activities trap wind inside and only serve to “cool” her down further. They often advise keeping warm and wearing socks for the same reasons – to keep as much of the heat in as possible. I’m sure all this makes sense in a country with a cold climate, but I really can’t imagine how anyone could put up with this in tropical country when sitting still in an airless room is sufficient to cause one to sweat profusely.

My MIL also said she couldn’t bear the idea of not bathing or washing her hair, so she did – about once every five or six days. Oh dear, and here I was thinking that I’d be washing everyday, although I would be well behaved and use the hair dryer where ordinarily I don’t even own one, let alone use one. She also told me that she was advised to rub her scalp with brandy and it would help to reduce antenatal hairloss.

Well, antenatal hairloss is due to the fact that we have accumulated more hair during pregnancy due to a shortening of the hair loss cycle and increased periods of hair growth. The loss of hair merely returns your hair thickness to the state it was in prior to the pregnancy. I have noticed myself that since being pregnant, I have hardly lost any hair whereas prior to the pregnancy, I would be dropping hair every day until my bathroom was so full of my hair, I could probably make a wig out of it!

It was also suggested that I leave the bathing of the baby to the care of the confinement lady to avoid getting my hands wet unnecessarily. I’ll explain the significance of wetting hands below. I suppose since the confinement also serves as a nanny to the baby and would be far more experienced than me in bathing the baby, I don’t really have any issues with this. It is, after all, part of what she is employed to do. My only concern is to ensure that I am capable of bathing the baby on my own before she leaves.

I was also advised not to wash my hands with water, but to carry a damp towel to wipe my hands when required. I’m not sure if I can abide by this one because prior to breast feeding, it is recommended that we wash our hands to reduce the likelihood of transfering germs to the baby. I don’t think it will be pleasant for baby to suffer from oral thrush that Mummy passed it to him because she refuses to clean her hands before handling his food.

The reasoning behind not washing the hands is because the contact with water is believed to trap wind in the body which will result in joint pains in the hands later on in life. Well, I already have stiffness in my hands and it’s due to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. If I were to suffer from joint pains later in life, I would most likely attribute it to the damage I’ve done to the ligaments in my fingers after cranking on crimps while rock climbing.

A lot of the confinement superstitions appear to me to be based around the concept of “prevention”. For instance, “Do this now and you won’t develop ailments later on in life,” or “You’re young now, but you’ll suffer later if you don’t listen me”. In all honesty, how many will be able to grow old gracefully without developing any medical conditions? I’ve often heard aunts and other female relatives telling me how they didn’t believe this stuff when they were young and now they are suffering for their foolishness. My question I pose in return is, “How do you know that you wouldn’t still be suffering what you have now if you HAD done all those things you were told to do?”

With regards to drinks, I was advised not to take plain water. Why? Because plain water contained no nutrients and a mother recovering from birth needs to ensure that everything she consumes is of value. My MIL prepared some ginger rice tea for me to drink and told me this was one of the drinks I should consuming in place of place of water during my confinement. The first few sips went down quite easily. Unfortunately, I found myself gagging a little towards the dredges of the cup. It reminded me of that vile stuff my mother used to boil for my brother and me and forced us to drink when we were kids. I wonder how I’m going to survive days of drinking nothing but this. I sincerely hope the confinement food is not as bad or I had better start stocking up some snacks in my room.

On the point of breastfeeding, my MIL said she would supplement her children’s feeds with formula because they ate so much her breast milk didn’t seem to be enough. It’s not her fault she felt this way. It is a common misconception a lot of women and family members have with regards to breastmilk. Because you can’t see how much the baby’s taken, there is always a fear that the baby hasn’t consumed enough. What she was not taught, which we now know, is that breastmilk is produced on baby’s demand. If she had placed baby more frequently on the breast, the milk would have been sufficient. By supplementing with formula, she had unwittingly jeopardised her own milk supply.

This is another example where the information once believed to hold true is now obsolete. They didn’t know back then that no formula could ever replace what breast milk can provide. I remember the 70s being the years were “man-made” was believed to be superior to “mother nature”. Ah, the arrogance of human beings to think we could manufacture something superior to what God had created.

My MIL was also taught that all babies must be fed with some water and she seemed somewhat surprised when we informed her that the nurse advised no water was required when breastfeeding the baby. I had also read in Asian Parenting that because the baby’s stomach is so small, the baby needs to ensure that whatever is consumed provides nutrients. Water merely serves to occupy space without providing any nutritious content towards the baby’s development.

I also heard from my MIL of the belief that a Guinness bath will help to reduce jaundice in the baby. I don’t think she was seriously considering it, but it seemed to be very much in vogue during her time. I do know it is still practiced by some, although I have to question the wisdom of this belief.

We know that a mother’s consumption of alcohol during pregnancy leads to fetal alcohol syndrome and this was only discovered in 1968. In fact a mother who takes as little as two drinks a day can still deliver a baby with mild symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome. After being aware of the damage alcohol can cause to a baby and that alcohol is readily absorbed through a baby’s fine skin, I don’t think I’m willing to accept the idea that because this was practiced before without apparent consequences, it should be okay for Gavin.

I have been told before – whatever you can follow without too much inconvenience, just follow for the sake of harmony, but I also believe we should not blindly follow advice if there are possible ramifications that result from them.

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• Bathing Baby in Alcohol
• Advice for New Moms
• Prenatal Classes at Pantai Hospital
• Ginger the Spice of Confinement
• Books for Confinement Cooking

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