As some of you know, traditions for new moms in China differ from those of western countries. A mother’s special treatment is called the sitting month (zuo yuezi) and it starts right after the baby is born and lasts a month.
What do you know about it? No showers for a month? Ew! Staying in bed all the time? No, that’s boring. Now, Chinese moms are taking a new approach to sitting month.
Dee(小S), a talk show host from Taiwan, has led a new trend for Chinese new mommies. Dee thinks this special month can help mothers lose the weight they have gained during their pregnancy and help them lose their new stretch marks During her sitting month, Dee invited Professor Zhuang Shuqin along. Afterwards, Professor Shuqin wrote a book, Three Blooming For Women which introduces how to take care of women during menstruation and zuo yuezi.
The books says:
Zuo yuezi can be separated into three parts. During the first part, mommies can’t drink any water apart from rice wine and specially-prepared soup. Also they are not permitted to have saltor vinegarin order to expel secretion in the body. In the second week, mothers need to enhance their bones and kidneys by eating杜仲(cortex eucommiae) powder and pig kidneys. Then from the third week, mothers should eat chicken cooked by sesame oil.
The professor also notes: The uterus is going to shrink fast within two weeks of lying down, and it is also vacuous which doesn’t offer enough support to other organs, so it is necessary to be in the bed for the first weeks and corsets would be necessary. (See the source here and buy the original book here)
The methods in Professor Zhuang Shuqin’s book are very difficult and may not be suitable for all mothers, but maybe Chinese mothers would be interested in these techniques during the sitting month to become a pretty mom.
