Chinese people have a tradition called “confinement”.

It’s based on the belief that when a woman has given birth, her body is “cold, weak and empty”. In order to bring herself back to health, she must observe 30 days of certain lifestyle and dietary changes.

Some of these changes are:

The woman must stay indoors for 30 days. She should not go out and expose herself to cold temperatures, cold wind, or breezes. She must rest. She must lie down as much as possible. She should not do anything strenuous or vigorous.

She must not wash her hair or bathe for 30 days. Yes, you heard me right. No washing for 30 days after delivery. She has to avoid all contact with water – including, not washing her hands. She must stay warm and cover up all parts of her body

She can’t drink plain water. Instead, she has to drink a special red date tea at all times.

While I appreciate the significance of traditional beliefs and customs – I chose not to follow many of these practices, for obvious practical and hygiene reasons. In fact, I had a shower about 30 minutes after Liam was born! It was the same for my first two newborns.

However, the aspect of confinement that I was VERY happy to observe was – CONFINEMENT FOOD. There’s a whole list of weird and wonderful Chinese foods that are said to nourish the woman’s body, revitalise health, expel wind, create warmth and increase the supply of breast milk.

When I explained this to my husband, after the birth of my first child, many years ago, he thought I would be eating an amazing array of fresh, healthy green vegetables and rich protein dishes. Oh how he was wrong.

Because the dishes were more like this.

This is slow stewed pig trotters with old ginger in black vinegar. It’s absolutely delicious. It’s to die for. In fact, my mouth is watering as I write this. But my husband thinks it looks like someone already ate it once.

After each of my children were born, my mother made a huge pot of this stuff for me. The thick, black soup bubbled and simmered on my stove for weeks. She kept adding more ingredients to the pot each week, enhancing it’s richness, flavour and texture. The smell of vinegar and ginger filled my house. It was divine. My husand spent a lot of time opening the windows to let the smell out, and my mother closed them all up again to stop me from getting chilled.

She also made delicious dishes with chicken, sesame oil and ginger. Sometimes it was pork and ginger. Eggs and ginger. Broccoli and ginger. Green beans and ginger.

Day and night. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had something cooked with sesame oil and ginger. I loved it.

My mother came over every day to help. She arrived in the morning, cooked me breakfast, got the boys ready for school, took the boys to school, washed the dishes, helped with the laundry, made me lunch, cleaned the kitchen, swept the floors. I got lots of sleep. And most importantly, I ate LOTS of confinement food! It was wonderful! I am a very fortunate Chinese girl.

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