I know that according to Chines, Korean and Vietnamese. According to traditional Chinese belief, mothers need a month of bed rest to recover after childbirth. "No showers, no baths, because the mother may catch a cold and all the energy she has left will be washed away,"
how do you guys think about this issue ? expecially women.
http://pregnancytoday.com/reference/articles/world.htm
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/baby/chinese.htm
http://www.nursingcenter.com/prodev/ce_art....asp?tid=408218
in the western world, they think we Chinese are crazy no shower for 30 days?
I kind of don't belive in 30 days without shower. But my mother keep telling me 30 day without shower after childbirth.
i heard from my mum that many women she knew refused to believe in this "refrain from bathing/showering" myth, in the end, they suffer very bad rheumatism and a few nearly died/ had fever after showering. Most women will just wipe themselves clean during this 30 days period.
Well, better safe than sorry.
A Korean Woman’s Postpartum Experience in the United States
I came to the United States in 1992, was married to an American in 1995, and gave birth in the United States twice in the late 1990s. My first experience giving birth was difficult and included a third degree laceration and significant pain after giving birth. Nevertheless, approximately 30 minutes after giving birth, my nurse suggested that I take a shower, explaining that a shower would refresh and strengthen me. I felt a certain degree of conflict, for Korean culture prohibits bathing immediately after giving birth. However, I followed her instruction, largely because my culture also teaches respect for authority.
After the shower, the nurse brought an ice container full of bottles of juice, explaining that because I had lost a lot of blood and fluids, I needed to drink as much liquid as I could. Again, I felt a conflict, for Korean practice (which follows the humoral theory) dictates that a new mother is not supposed to drink cold liquids.
Circumstances required that my husband and I had to stay at a home other than our own for a few days after my discharge from the hospital; the homeowner kept the temperature of the home very low. Again, according to Korean practice, a new mother is supposed to cover up with blankets and keep warm to protect her loose bones; according to this belief, if I failed to do so, I would suffer from bone pain or rheumatism in my old age. Although as a nurse I had been educated in Western postpartum practices, I found I still believed in the traditional Korean postpartum practices, whether or not they had grounding in Western medical theory.
Another frustration was food. After I gave birth, my husband brought me the same meals that Americans usually eat at home, such as bagels or muffins for breakfast, and sandwiches for lunch. I wondered why my husband and his family did not prepare special foods for me, since I was a new mother. I sorely missed miyuk-kuk , the hot and smelly seaweed soup, which is routinely served to every new mother in Korea. Other American attitudes and behaviors also confused and disappointed me. Approximately 7 days after I gave birth to our baby daughter, my husband’s family gathered to celebrate her arrival. I felt that all their concern was for the baby, rather than for me, the new mother. In Korea, very elaborate consideration and attention is granted to the new mother after birth. As a Korean, I also looked forward to enjoying the role of a patient until my full recovery, usually lasting 1 month. I remembered my sister’s postpartum period in Korea. After having her baby, she came to our home to receive postpartum care from our mother. For about a month, my sister’s only duties were to eat and sleep to restore her health. In contrast, my American husband and his family treated me as a healthy person who could resume normal activities almost immediately. For example, my husband expected me to drive to the pediatrician’s clinic for the baby’s first physical checkup 7 days after giving birth.
After my second birth experience 3 years later I felt less conflict, for I had learned how to negotiate differences between my culture and my husband’s. Because I had become more acculturated, I felt less conflict with American practices, but nevertheless, I still felt that a new mother receives inadequate consideration in the United States. Within an hour of giving birth, a nurse brought me my baby and asked me to sleep with her, explaining that this would increase infant-mother attachment. During the night, I called my nurse twice and asked her to take the baby to the nursery, because I was still tired, and wanted to sleep without interruption. Korean culture had taught me that maternal rest is crucial to recovery. But the nurse’s comments made me feel guilty—as if I were an incompetent and lazy mother—so I held the baby thorough the night. The next morning, when I told my husband about the experience, he was delighted that our new daughter had slept with her mother. Again, I saw that in America less consideration is given for maternal rest than in Korea.