Two of my Chinese friends are expecting their first babies in August.* I don't envy them going through their third trimester in the humid, sticky heat of a Shandong summer. But if your conception of Chinese maternity care was derived from novels like The Good Earth, where the peasant wife toils in the fields all day, then delivers her baby by herself, you might be quite surprised to learn about the regime my friends will undergo after they've given birth.
In ideal conditions (that is, if you are not in the middle of the Long March or something), Chinese women rest and recuperate for a full 40 days, while being waited on hand and foot.
In ideal conditions (that is, if you are not in the middle of the Long March or something), Chinese women rest and recuperate for a full 40 days, while being waited on hand and foot.
That 40 day figure intrigues me because 40 days was also the traditional rest period prescribed for Jewish women in Leviticus in the Old Testament. The idea of "uncleanliness" also figures into it, but I am not going to get huffy about that -- I always thought that a time of monthly seclusion and rest for ladies sounded like a darn good idea! "Hey honey, what's for dinner?" " Sorry, babe, I'm unclean. Get it yourself. I think there's some bread and olives on the shelf."
I am old enough to remember the feminist movement of the late 60's, when the "yeah-but-do-we-want-a-woman-president-with-a-nuclear-button-and-that-time-of-the-month" argument was met with angry scorn from feminists. Not really answered, more like a "how dare you advance such a ridiculous argument" response. But some modern feminists, unlike their counterparts of a generation ago, want the government to legislate special consideration for women in the workforce and grant paid monthly leave to women suffering from severe menstrual symptoms. But I digress.
Some Christian denominations prescribe, or used to prescribe, that women stay home for 40 days after birth, then make their first outing to the church to give thanks for her own life and the life of her new child. In my novel, A Contrary Wind, set in Regency England, one of the characters is "churched" after giving birth to twins. Considering that in olden times, so many women died during or after childbirth, this Church of England prayer was uttered in all sincerity:
O ALMIGHTY God, we give thee humble thanks for that thou hast vouchsafed to deliver this woman thy servant from the great pain and peril of child-birth: Grant, we beseech thee, most merciful Father, that she through thy help may both faithfully live and walk according to thy will, in this life present; and also may be partaker of everlasting glory in the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
It's startling and poignant to consider that Jane Austen lost three of her sisters-in-law to complications from childbirth.
I am old enough to remember the feminist movement of the late 60's, when the "yeah-but-do-we-want-a-woman-president-with-a-nuclear-button-and-that-time-of-the-month" argument was met with angry scorn from feminists. Not really answered, more like a "how dare you advance such a ridiculous argument" response. But some modern feminists, unlike their counterparts of a generation ago, want the government to legislate special consideration for women in the workforce and grant paid monthly leave to women suffering from severe menstrual symptoms. But I digress.
Some Christian denominations prescribe, or used to prescribe, that women stay home for 40 days after birth, then make their first outing to the church to give thanks for her own life and the life of her new child. In my novel, A Contrary Wind, set in Regency England, one of the characters is "churched" after giving birth to twins. Considering that in olden times, so many women died during or after childbirth, this Church of England prayer was uttered in all sincerity:
O ALMIGHTY God, we give thee humble thanks for that thou hast vouchsafed to deliver this woman thy servant from the great pain and peril of child-birth: Grant, we beseech thee, most merciful Father, that she through thy help may both faithfully live and walk according to thy will, in this life present; and also may be partaker of everlasting glory in the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
It's startling and poignant to consider that Jane Austen lost three of her sisters-in-law to complications from childbirth.
Ginger Rice Wine Chicken -- click for recipe The Chinese custom of "sitting the month" as it is called, is at least two thousand years old. The new mother must follow a long, strict list of do's and don'ts during her first month after delivery. She must adhere to a special diet, eating only "warm" foods that will restore balance to her body. She may have ginger and brown sugar and red dates. Chicken is especially important, and might be served to her every day.
Of course, we Westerners really believe in the efficacy of chicken soup for invalids as well, so much so chicken soup with matzo balls is called "Jewish penicillin."
Of course, we Westerners really believe in the efficacy of chicken soup for invalids as well, so much so chicken soup with matzo balls is called "Jewish penicillin."
- No housework! No exercise or exertion of any kind. Some strict mothers and mothers-in-law also forbid reading, watching television and using cell phones.
- No opened windows, no drafts, nothing cold must touch the body. No cold food, no ice cream.
- And no washing! No showers, no hair washing, even no tooth brushing, or at least not with cold water.
- Mom rests in bed. She can cuddle and feed her baby but all other baby care, cooking and housework, are done for her.
A grandpa feeds the birds with his grandson in Kunming Typically the new mother is waited on by her own mother and/or her mother-in-law, but for China's emerging middle class, one option is to sit out the month at a postpartum facility. One of my friends runs a business with her husband. He explained to me that he would be busy running the family business while his wife recovered, and it would be placing too much of a burden on their parents to ask them to step in and provide all the cooking, cleaning and baby care necessary. So for a fee, my friend can relax in a cross between a hotel and a hospital, along with her baby.
Can 1.4 billion Chinese be wrong? I can only anecdotally state that whenever Ross and I go downtown, we are enchanted by the beauty and serenity of the Chinese babies that we encounter, travelling about with their parents and grandparents. We see very few fussy babies.
Can 1.4 billion Chinese be wrong? I can only anecdotally state that whenever Ross and I go downtown, we are enchanted by the beauty and serenity of the Chinese babies that we encounter, travelling about with their parents and grandparents. We see very few fussy babies.
Meanwhile in the West, the tabloids feature celebrities "bouncing back" and regaining their slender figures weeks after giving birth, and new mothers are sometimes discharged from hospital the day after delivery!
*("Hey Lona, I hear you mutter, what do you mean, first baby? Don't you mean only baby? China has a one child policy." Well, actually, the policy has been changed and many families can now have two babies.)
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