Postpartum Rules? What to follow?

There are a lot of traditional rules and myths behind “sitting the month”. Some may sound awkward in today’s world and people have come up with new adaptations and ideas. I am going to share some of the typical ones here and I did follow most of them through, especially for my second postpartum period because I treated it as the last chance to reboot everything and correct any mistakes I had made in my first. Here comes the first two.

Rule 1: Drink only warm, roasted rice tea instead of plain water.

Roasted rice tea is recommended especially if you feel cold and weak after giving birth. Steeping a pre-made tea bag of roasted rice and goji, dried longan, preserved mandarin peel was the first thing I did right after I gave birth in the hospital. That first sip of rice tea after such a long, marathon-like, exhausting labour was so heavenly. Over the first 14 days the only drink I had was roasted rice tea, on top of endless soups. It kept my body warm and increase my milk supply in a stressless way. I prepare this homey tea in tea bags for all of my clients to pack along in their hospital bag and reminded their partner to steep it in an insulated mug.

Rule 2: Dress warm, cover every part of your body.

New moms are strongly advised to stay indoors. If they must go out, they have to cover themselves especially the neck and back of the head. It was believed that if your body is exposed to wind (even a light breeze) or cool air, your body will be invaded as the coldness would block your circulation, leaving you a weak body, headache, cold hands and even dizziness. 

When I packed my bag for labour, I picked a hoodie and a scarf (I gave birth in spring), I wrapped myself up before I stepped out of the hospital. I thought I did a very good job, until around the 7th day when we had to bring the little one to our family doctor for infant check up. It was not as windy that day and before I put on my hood, a light breeze blew behind my neck. That night I got a bad headache and even with my best efforts hoping to clear the coldness that had entered my body. Nothing really helped. The worst thing was, I suffered from headache very easily since then. Acupuncture helped a bit but my chinese doctor told me the only cure would be getting another pregnancy, for another chance to reboot. I was lucky I got the 2nd chance around 2 years later. This time, I really did make it and cleared all those minor but annoying health issues. My health and body became way better than before my first pregnancy.