A few days ago a friend of mine gave birth to a little baby girl. I knew she was born a couple weeks early, but I was not expecting to see such a small baby. I think she was about a third the size that AB was at birth. I could not get over how small she was!
Also in following with the traditions here, the mother has begun her month of confinement. After giving birth women are not allowed to "touch water" for a month. That includes washing their hands, hair, or any other part of their body. For all you ladies out there who have given birth before, you understand when I say, yuck. In addition, she is not allowed to feel a draft of any sort, not from an air conditioner, window, fan or open door. It was in the mid 90's when visited her yesterday. That poor woman was in long sleeves, under a quilt in a room that was receiving no ventilation in 90+ degree heat.
They see all humans needing balance between hot and cold. According to them giving birth is a cold action, so she needs to restore the heat. So that is why they avoid the chill of water and cool air. They also don't drink or eat any cool foods or beverages. They are afraid that the cool wind will "enter their bones" and will cause illnesses the rest of their lives.
Lastly, my poor friend had a c-section. Although I did not have a c-section I know that doctors tend to prefer women to move around within a day or so of the c-section. My friend was 4 days postpartum and had not even sat up in her bed once. To use the restroom they catheterized her, and she has not eaten solid food since before giving birth to avoid going #2. They also have not let her nurse her baby since her milk has not yet come in, so they are bottle feeding the baby and are throwing away her colostrum since they see it as bad.
Now to the tiny little baby girl. She is so little that a newborn diaper would go up to her chin if someone tried to put it on her. Her head is like the size of my fist. This baby also has to go through a period of confinement too. Most notably she has to sweat through the hot room with her mother. You can see in the photos that she is under a thick quilt. I would like to state again, AB and I were sweating in that room. I can't imagine how uncomfortable the little baby could be.
I do not know how the women do it here. They thought I was crazy for showering after AB was born, for eating fruit, for going outside, and the biggie was when I told them we went swimming. They concluded that Asian bodies and everyone else's bodies were different. I asked them about the Asians that lived in the West, and apparently they think somehow they physically change when they leave Asia. Then they made a comment about the food we probably eat.
I am so glad that I gave birth in a Western hospital.
This was AB's first time to see a baby smaller than herself. She is really into touching everything, so we had to hold her hands back. The young woman who is holding her is the younger sister of the new mommy.
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