Postpartum Confinement

By Esther Rachel Lai. - 11/25/2015

Yesterday marked one month since I gave birth but I declared confinement over for myself at exactly 4 weeks (meaning 28 days instead of 31). I wanted to do confinement proper this time round but was hindered by a plethora of unfortunate events that made it pretty half-assed.

When I gave birth to Kylie, I really didn't give two hoots about all the confinement rules and dismissed them as old wive's tales. But after encountering so many problems with my body this recent pregnancy, I decided to be more disciplined and just follow the rules to the best I can.

For a start, back then I didn't really eat any "confinement food" but this time round, I decided to cater my confinement food. Through recommendation from my cousin's wife, I catered mine with Natal Essentials. & because she told me that the portion was more than enough for two, I decided to cater only for lunch and have the same food for dinner. I must admit, for the first few days, I was very pleased with the food. I even remarked to my mom and Shane about how delicious their food was but after the second week, I got sick of my confinement food because the way they cooked the dishes were rather similar. Fried fish with ginger, steamed fish with ginger, chicken with wine and ginger, pork with wine and ginger. Some of the soups weren't exactly pleasing to my tastebuds either. It got to a point where I had to wait till I was really ravenous before I could stomach my food because the thought of it made me sick. I have to say though, the longan red date tea really works. It really got rid of all that wind in my tummy!

Apart from food, I made the effort to wear long pants & walked around the house with bedroom slippers on this time too (previously I couldn't be bothered and wore shorts the entire one month) & maybe it's coincidence but I do feel rheumatism pains in my left knee at times so I decided to play it safe.

Back then I showered after the first week because I really couldn't take it anymore but with this confinement, my mom would brew herbs for me to bathe in every few days so it was pretty bearable the entire month.

I know you're not supposed to go out of the house as much as possible during confinement but it was impossible because during the first week, we had to travel to and fro Gleneagles to see Megan in the nursery (she was admitted for jaundice). & then in the third week, I came down with a very high fever for 5 days (apparently the result of an infection within the urinary tract) and had to be admitted back into Gleneagles for treatment. Having high fever meant that I couldn't wrap myself in longs and I even had to cool myself with an ice pack. It was then that I decided, to do away with the confinement rules altogether.

So yup, I believe that confinement do's and dont's might be true to some level but to follow everything would be crazy and sometimes the circumstances don't work in our favour. I'm just glad that confinement's finally over for me!

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