Confinement pregnancy is a period of time when pregnant women’s movements were restricted or confined to help reduce the chance of complications. When a woman was pregnant, every effort was made to ensure baby would grow and develop healthily. The expectant mother’s diet and daily activities would be monitored and regulated carefully. Besides practices such as quarantine or restriction of the pregnant woman, other chinese custom practices such as prayers to Foetal God, prenatal education or Tai Jiao would also be observed.
What are the confinement practices or tradition during confinement pregnancy?
It is a tradition during the confinement pregnancy period where the pregnant woman’s immediate family would offer an Urging Gift. The Urging Gift symbolised their wish for the baby to be born as quickly as possible. This includes clothes for mother and child, such as diapers, shoes, hats, underwear or traditional Chinese bodice or Du Dou. Alternatively, the family might provide food with special nutritional or symbolic properties such as eggs painted with red coloring, noodles that represent longevity, longans which embody their wish for many good sons and walnuts which are associated with overall family harmony.
What are the confinement dos and don’ts?
Women in pregnancy are advised to stay at home, avoid stress, sex and manual labour during the third trimester of their pregnancies in particular. This is a commonly practice during ancient china which can be attributed that there is no hospitals at that time. The baby delivery would usually take place in the woman’s house where midwife would be engaged to go over to help with the delivery. Nowadays, women in pregnancy can take up prenatal yoga, prenatal massage to help relieve their tension, aches and stress. They can go for regular body checkup and able to schedule for delivery at public or private hospitals conveniently where they are taken good care of professionally.
Confinement after pregnancy.
After childbirth, new mothers would need to rest and recuperate their health especially if they went through caesarean. The practice of 28 days confinement after pregnancy is common in Singapore, Malaysia, and other asian countries. Confinement nanny agency or confinement centre provides valuable help to mothers such as confinement nanny and post natal massage services. NannySOS confinement nanny agency also provide confinement food catering or herbal packages for families who don’t require newborn baby care support from confinement nannies.