One of the questions I often get from locals about giving birth is who will be helping me during my confinement. I had heard of confinement before I got pregnant and knew it was something I never wanted to do. It is a fairly common practice here for Singaporean Chinese, Malay, and Indians and they don't always realize that this is almost unheard of in the US.
So what is confinement? After giving birth and returning home, the mother is to observe confinement for 30 - 44 days to recover. During this period she must not shower, use air conditioning, or leave the home. There is also a special diet to avoid 'cold' foods like apples, pineapple, cucumbers and to avoid 'windy' foods like onions and jackfruit. There are lots of recipes that are special for confinement and the objective is to 'warm' the body and increase circulation to speed recovery.
In order to do confinement, a relative or confinement nanny is required. This person will prepare all the food per confinement practices and also cares for the baby, night and day. The mother is only supposed to feed the baby if she is breastfeeding. Otherwise she is to stay in bed and recuperate. I think spending 30 days in bed is much easier when you have 16 weeks of government mandated paid maternity leave like they do instead of the 6-8 weeks that we get.
Most of the Singaporeans I know that have done confinement do it because their mother or mother-in-law insists and are either there the whole time or often come to check up on them. I know many will hop in the shower as soon as they get a moment alone and I certainly can't blame them for that. I can't go 30 hours without a shower, less 30 days.
One of the things I like that they do is at the end of the 30 days, they have a full-moon party which is to celebrate the baby being 1-month old and the end of confinement. This is when friends and relatives all come to meet the baby and give red packets. Red packets always contain money and are given at various celebrations. This is what they do instead of baby showers prior to the birth of the baby. My coworkers have asked if we are going to do a full-moon party and that may be one local practice we decide to follow, minus the red packets.
So would you ever do confinement?
In order to do confinement, a relative or confinement nanny is required. This person will prepare all the food per confinement practices and also cares for the baby, night and day. The mother is only supposed to feed the baby if she is breastfeeding. Otherwise she is to stay in bed and recuperate. I think spending 30 days in bed is much easier when you have 16 weeks of government mandated paid maternity leave like they do instead of the 6-8 weeks that we get.
Most of the Singaporeans I know that have done confinement do it because their mother or mother-in-law insists and are either there the whole time or often come to check up on them. I know many will hop in the shower as soon as they get a moment alone and I certainly can't blame them for that. I can't go 30 hours without a shower, less 30 days.
One of the things I like that they do is at the end of the 30 days, they have a full-moon party which is to celebrate the baby being 1-month old and the end of confinement. This is when friends and relatives all come to meet the baby and give red packets. Red packets always contain money and are given at various celebrations. This is what they do instead of baby showers prior to the birth of the baby. My coworkers have asked if we are going to do a full-moon party and that may be one local practice we decide to follow, minus the red packets.
So would you ever do confinement?
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