Hellobee Boards

I am showering but my mom keeps telling me to dry off before coming out, making sure I'm warm.

I am eating tons and tons of seaweed and other soup. Trying to dress warmly, even though breastfeeding makes me so hot and sweaty.

oh my gosh no way! I was drinking ice water once and my grandma almost had a heart attack. She is usually very laid back and gentle but she practically whipped the glass out of my hands. Since she's my grandma I obliged and drank lukewarm water instead (yeuch) but as soon as she was gone I had a huge glass of ice water.

My mom is still pretty big on no coldness, so this summer will be a battleground. Thankfully our thermostat control is in our bedroom... hehe. I may still have to get a fan in our room though. Or maybe I'll move myself and the baby into the super cool basement. Haha.

I do plan on eating the seaweed soup because my mom's is the BEST and I love it!

@mrs. wagon: Omg you're so naughty! Haha. I started making boricha and corn tea yesterday! I love warm water. It goes down so much easier.

@regberadaisy: How does your mom make pigs' feet? Koreans dip it in this salted shrimp sauce thing. The funny thing is, I used to eat pigs feet when I was younger because I didn't know what it was. I stopped after I went to dim sum 10 years ago and someone I was with ordered chicken feet, and I was so disturbed by how "feet-like" they looked that I stopped eating any kind of feet! ha ha

I did. My mom stayed with us for 2 months pp just so she can make sure I practiced the full 1 month confinement. Yeah, the no shower thing was a stinker. It was fine for the first two weeks because all you wanted to do was get rest. After that, it just started bothering me. I think you're allowed to bathe with boiled ginger water if you must bathe.

@betsyboop: I would definitely take postpartum care seriously!!!

i didn't follow with the 1st one and within a year i started to get aches n pains which i never had before. i never felt normal again. they said that you can "reset" by following with another pregnancy. i followed everything to the T with the 2nd one, no shower, no hair washing, no cold drinks, only eat chicken, pigs feet, and soups so far no aches n pains and i feel great.

This is something that has been stressing me out. I already told my mom that I'm not going to follow the rituals. I agreed to eat a lot of gingery foods because I like ginger. I'll be definitely taking showers.

I think these rules are inapplicable in the modern day anyway, and aren't based on evidence. I mean, what about the non-Asians new moms out there? did they all get aches and pains because they didn't follow these rituals?

@regberadaisy: I give you soo much credit. Just curious, did you follow the hairwashing rule?

My mom was very lenient on me and the only requirement she had for me was to eat chicken and alot of it. I think I had chicken 10 times the first two weeks.

@regberadaisy: WOW. I showered at the hospital a few hours after my LO was born! I ate lots of warm and healthy healing foods, but got to shower! My mom told me not to, but she wasn't pushy or controlling!
I was so stinky post baby.. can't imagine not being able to shower for 20 days!

I def showered and bathed right away. But I did eat miyukgook, kwpt my body warm, dodnt drink cold drinks, and did.t really leave the house for 3+ wks.

Im planning on doing the same for future pp care.

Ok now I'm curious, do any non Asians do this? I've heard of keeping your body warm for trying to get pregnant but I haven't heard of any rituals in my family. These are all so interesting! Does anyone have a link of where I can find a full list of post partum rituals?

Since my parents have to fly to see me, I doubt I will follow any her our vietnamese traditions.

@chopsuey119: I totally believe in the postpartum care stuff too!

my mom cooked me all the postpartum foods (lots of ginger, "hot" foods, herbs) and made me dry my hair right away when i washed it and made me wear warm clothes (although that wasn't hard because it was cold). she also didn't let me drink cold water or go out with the baby to public places. she said when she had my brother, she was feeling really hot so washed her hands in cold water and she couldn't move her hands for a month! so i think there is some truth to these rituals.

i'm guessing most of these postpartum rituals come from when people used to live in tents by the river and survival was the most important thing. getting cold meant you'd get sick and eating hot foods (which i think tend to be more nutritious than cold foods) meant getting more calories. but thats just a guess.

@jedeve: I was wondering this same thing.