The importance of confinement

Perhaps confinement after childbirth is taken seriously only in our country. Many foreign mothers may start going out or working normally a few days after giving birth. This is very different from the situation in China where confinement after childbirth lasts for a month. Why do we need to observe confinement after childbirth? What are the main aspects of the importance of confinement after childbirth? The reason for confinement is that the mother is relatively weak in the first month, and she needs to breastfeed the baby, so she needs more nutrition and more rest.

1. The East-West Conflict over “Confinement”

Chinese people have attached great importance to confinement since ancient times. Over thousands of years, China has formed a unique confinement culture. Culture emphasizes inheritance, but many young people nowadays refuse to observe confinement after childbirth. They have received Western education since childhood and have been exposed to Western technology. They believe that Westerners do not observe confinement after childbirth and go back to work as soon as they are discharged from the hospital. There is no need for us Chinese to observe confinement after childbirth, and that confinement after childbirth is the dregs of traditional Chinese culture. Is this really the case?

2. The Chinese and Westerners have different physical constitutions

Why do Chinese women have to take good care of themselves during the confinement period? The reason is simple: our physique is different from that of Westerners. The people are shaped by the land and water they live in, and there are huge differences among different races.

Western civilization originated from nomadic peoples and is a killing civilization. To this day, Westerners still mainly use knives and forks to eat. The same is true of their medicine. The most commonly used treatment method is surgery, and they use a scalpel at every turn.

Why is this happening? This has to do with the dietary structure. Westerners mainly eat fish and meat. According to Chinese medicine, "fish produces fire, and meat produces phlegm." Physically speaking, they have heavy heat and dampness. In order to dissipate this foul air, their skin pores are very different from ours in the East. For example, Westerners have a lot of body hair, even on their chests. Their pores are large and their joints are thick, so that they can metabolize moisture out of their bodies through the opening function of the pores. This is the result of hundreds of thousands or even millions of years of physiological evolution in order to increase the intensity of propaganda.

Looking at us Chinese, we bid farewell to the primitive times long ago and have mainly eaten fibrous foods, including grains and vegetables, since ancient times. Due to the light diet, the Chinese physique is more astringent than excitatory, so our body hair is very light, our skin is tight and delicate, our pores are very small, and our joints are particularly fine.

3. Why does TCM believe that mothers need to stay in confinement after childbirth?

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that, under normal circumstances, the joints of Chinese people are closed, but after childbirth, as the pelvis opens, the muscles, bones and skin of the mother's entire body are in an open and relaxed state. At this time, wind and cold can easily take advantage of the opportunity and enter the human body through the open joints.

At the end of the confinement period, the mother's pelvis and muscles, bones and skin throughout the body will gradually return to their normal closed state. Then, the cold evil that enters the body during the confinement period will naturally be locked inside the body, leaving serious consequences.

4. Postpartum Disease

A weak mother may feel back pain soon after the end of the confinement period; and most women will feel pain all over their body, especially in the joints, when they get older; some people will even suffer from pain for their entire life. In traditional Chinese medicine, this disease is called "postpartum wind", or confinement disease.

There is a saying in Traditional Chinese Medicine, "Diseases caused during the confinement period should be cured during the confinement period." This means that the illness contracted during the last confinement period can only be treated during the next confinement period. Because only during the next confinement period can the joints of the whole body open again and reach a naturally relaxed state. Take this opportunity to use medicine to drive out the cold evil and cure the disease.

5. It’s not that Westerners don’t do confinement after childbirth.

Westerners have looser joints, so they have more opportunities to get rid of the cold, so they are not too afraid of cold evil. This physical condition has led to them not forming the tradition of confinement. But this does not mean that Western people will be fine if they do not observe the confinement period.

There was once a foreigner who complained that his Chinese wife was too troublesome and had to stay in confinement after childbirth. He said that Westerners never had to do that and were still fine. But he also cannot deny that many Western women suffer from joint diseases when they get older.

So, it is not that confinement is not important, nor is it that it is okay for Westerners not to observe confinement. Rather, Western medicine focuses on treating the pain wherever it hurts, and rarely analyzes the root cause of the disease. They have never linked joint diseases that women suffer from as they age to the lack of confinement after giving birth decades ago.

6. Even if you have a miscarriage, you still need to "sit on the month"

You also need to "confinement period" after an artificial abortion. We have talked about this before: a minor miscarriage is worse than a major one and is more harmful to the body. This is because a full term birth is the result of a ripe fruit falling off the vine, a manifestation of perfect physical and mental harmony, and complete merit; whereas a minor miscarriage is a result of a twist, which is similar to destruction, damaging the branches and even the roots, causing damage to both the body and mind. Therefore, after a miscarriage, you need to rest well for a period of time, which is called "confinement month", to adjust both your body and mind.

Many young mothers nowadays are impatient, but once they suffer from postpartum disease, it is almost difficult to cure. Therefore, future mothers must take good care of themselves during the confinement period and beware of postpartum diseases.

Confinement: The best opportunity for women to change their physique!

Confinement is the best time in a woman's life to improve her physical condition. If you don't take good care of yourself during the confinement period, it will pose a hidden danger to your future health. Chinese people pay attention to confinement after childbirth. Don’t think it is superstition. Many of the things they pay attention to are reasonable.