Learn about the origins of the confinement practice and some of the taboos and superstitions behind this Chinese postpartum recovery practice.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• Why is confinement usually performed for 30 days?
• The ancient Chinese origins of confinement.

KEYWORDS MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE

• Integrative care
• Integrative medicine

ARTICLE CITATION

• Lee, J. (2006). "Childbirth in Early Imperial China". In Medicine for Women in Imperial China. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047409922_006

QUOTES

"...the postpartum period, where the postpartum confinement recovery is expected to happen, ranged from three days, seven days, 30 days, the whole month, 100 days, and up to half a year, or even as long as a year of resting after childbirth."

"...when women back in ancient China days did not go to a delivery house or a birthing house, and they could not go home to their family's home to give birth, it was customary from the Han Dynasty onwards to set up a special birth room either inside the house where they're currently living with their husband and their immediate family or outside the home."

"...the reason for them to do a confinement practice away from everyone else. It was absolutely related to the cultural belief and the taboos and superstition around how dirty the childbirth process is."

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