What is "confinement?"

The term "confinement" is commonly used in two dreaded situations in Singapore. For the men, it means staying back in the army camp during National Service as a punishment for a mistake committed earlier while the others get an off-day (book out). For the ladies, it means the postpartum or postnatal period that usually lasts from 4-6 weeks in which the mother's body, including hormone levels and uterus size, returns to a non-pregnant state.

During confinement, the new mother are fussed over by the elder at home or the confinement nanny engaged to assist throughout the period. She was to observe an entirely alien routine that includes a strict regime of a specific diet as well as day-to-day activities restrictions such as bathing at certain timings or using a particular kind of water. Many of these practices were passed down from our ancestors who migrated from China decades ago. The problem is, While the practices are clear, their original intentions become ambiguous or even illogical today. One reason could be the variations between practices among different ethnic groups living in difference provinces of China in the olden days. When it comes to common cuisine, the differences in methodology or ideology across different parts of China are palpable. These could be originated from the differences in culture, preferences or even resource restriction across different parts of China. As they migrate to the melting pot of Singapore, these Chinese migrants continue to carry out their old practices according to their dialect groups. By the time the boundaries of Chinese ethnic groups in Singapore becomes a blurry line today, new Chinese parents have a hard time dissecting truths from myths, logic from superstition in regards to confinement practices.

A key concept of a proper confinement is to keep the body warm at all times. It's pretty obvious even for someone who has no medical knowledge like me. A warm body promotes recovery, good blood circulation and general well being. So it is logical that the ancestors placed ample emphasis on this, if I may assume they might have poor living conditions and less well equipped to keep heat within the house in the cold of the night. Besides, many if not all provinces in China experiences four seasons a year. The cold in certain seasons would be of concerned for the post natal ladies. In such circumstances, it wouldn't be far fetch to ask for the new mother not to bathe or wash her hair for a month, to prevent her from catching a chill in an unintended mishap in the poorly insulated bath. 

The diet differs across dialect groups never diverge from the key concept of maintaining or promoting warmth in the body. Dishes were designed to be 'heaty' by including certain ingredients. Besides keeping the new mother's body being adequately warmed, it was believed there are other benefits such as the expulsion of 'wind', toxins and the 'bad blood' from her body.

Fast forward to modern day, with the key concept in mind, it will be helpful in assisting us to make good judgement on what practices to pick up or drop in accordance to their relevance. For instance, I believe it is unnecessary for a woman in confinement not to take a bath for a full month in Singapore, where the weather is hot and sunny all year round. Having said that, it is important to dry and clothed up appropriately as soon as she gets out from the shower. There should be further emphasis on this in Perth where I am for the temperature during certain seasons can go well below the body temperature.

The same care should be taken for the selection of meals. We should be able to judge for ourselves if we need a 'heat' boost or less of it because a body can easily go 'overheat' if we consume too much tonics. That is, in my humble opinion, what I call 'enlightened confinement', instead of following practices blindly and getting ourselves into unnecessary anguish and inconvenience.