Dr. Lilac comes to answer this question.
Dr. Ding Xiang was heartbroken after seeing this news. In such a hot weather, just don’t turn on the air conditioner and fan, and you have to wear long clothes, long trousers and a quilt. Ordinary people will know how uncomfortable it is just thinking about it. What's more, a mother who has just given birth to a baby? I feel deeply sorry for this new mother who unfortunately passed away! The most terrifying thing in the world is not ignorance, but ignorance given in the name of love. In thousands of corners of China, I don’t know how many pregnant women are silently enduring this kind of ignorant love.
Most Chinese mothers undergo a special "ritual" within a few weeks after giving birth - confinement. There are many taboos in traditional confinement. The most common ones are: keeping warm, covering the whole body even in summer; not going out or even getting out of bed, not blowing in the air; not washing face, hair, bathing, or brushing teeth; diet It is necessary to avoid eating raw and cold food, and to take various "supplements"; and even in conjunction with modern technology, new taboos have been developed such as not watching TV, mobile phones, etc. to avoid damaging the eyes.
Usually people think that the experience passed down from generation to generation must be reasonable. However, the fact is that tradition may not be reliable, and experience may not be correct! From the perspective of modern medicine, many traditional confinement practices are not only unhelpful to maternal health, but may even cause potential harm! Is Chinese-style "confinement" reliable?
1. Are mothers and newborns afraid of wind?
In ancient times, there was no concept of sterilization, and mothers and newborns were prone to bacterial infections that could lead to illness or even death. Tetanus is a typical example. Tetanus is caused by infection with the bacterium Tetanus bacilli. There are many tetanus bacilli in the human intestines, and the wounds during delivery and the baby's umbilical cord are easily contaminated by feces, leading to tetanus infection. The nerve center of tetanus patients is easily stimulated, such as strong light, wind, sound, vibration, drinking water, etc., which can induce convulsions.
Due to the lack of medical and microbiological knowledge, the ancients generally attributed many physical discomforts and diseases to "cold", "cold", etc. They believed that tetanus was a cold caused by damage to the body, so the response was to protect people with wounds from wind and other external stimuli.
Newborns infected with tetanus often develop symptoms around 7 days old, so it is also called "seven-day wind". The huge lethality of tetanus makes people fearful of external stimuli such as "wind", so mothers and newborns must strictly protect themselves from wind and keep warm. As everyone knows, Tetanus bacillus is an anaerobic bacterium. If the wound is closed for a long time, a local hypoxic environment will be formed, which is more conducive to the reproduction of the bacteria.
Keeping the doors and windows at home tightly closed, making the room hot and dirty, is also conducive to the growth and reproduction of bacteria and is not conducive to the healing of maternal wounds; in summer, maternal and infant tightly wrapped, it will also increase the risk of heat stroke.
In the United States, mothers dress just like ordinary people when they are discharged from the hospital. If it is a hot summer, the mother should also wear short-sleeved shirts, skirts, bare feet and slippers, and open the windows for ventilation and use the air conditioner as usual. Usually within a few days (no more than a week) after being discharged from the hospital, the mother and baby need to see a pediatrician, and it is even more essential to go out.
2. Can’t pregnant women get wet?
Because people get more sick in winter or cold conditions, and the previous water quality was not clean enough, there was a lack of shower conditions, and as mentioned earlier, tetanus patients will be stimulated by drinking water and cause convulsions, and there is a lack of relevant knowledge. The ancients believed that the disease was caused by exposure to cold or exposure to water (especially cold water). Therefore, there were taboos for pregnant women not to wash their face, hair, bathe, or brush their teeth. There were even absurd claims that it hurt wherever they washed. In fact, these practices are just taken for granted. The key lies in disinfection measures and sanitary conditions.
In developed countries, hospital wards generally have showers, and doctors will urge mothers to take showers a few hours after giving birth. Tears and transvaginal incisions during childbirth do not affect bathing, and you can bathe even after a caesarean section. In addition to showering, mothers should also rinse their vulva several times a day to promote the discharge of lochia and the recovery of the birth canal. The traditional rule of not being allowed to get wet during confinement is actually very unscientific and unhygienic. It is not only detrimental to the recovery of the mother's body, but also poses a threat to the baby's health.
3. Can’t pregnant women get out of bed and move around?
Mothers consume a lot of physical energy during childbirth and are usually accompanied by blood loss. They do need to rest after delivery, but rest does not mean that they can only rest in bed. In fact, appropriate activities are more conducive to the mother's postpartum recovery.
Because the blood is in a hypercoagulable state before and after delivery (this stress response can reduce blood loss during delivery), long-term bed rest and inactivity in the lower limbs are prone to the formation of blood clots. These blood clots may even be life-threatening if they migrate with the blood to the heart, lungs and other parts of the body. In the past farming societies, in addition to taking on all the housework, women often had to participate in a lot of physical labor. Even if they were sick, they could hardly rest. In this case, giving mothers the opportunity to rest in bed has certain positive significance. The situation is different now. In American maternity hospitals, doctors or nurses will come to urge mothers to get out of bed a few hours after delivery.
4. Are postpartum dietary taboos reasonable?
The traditional bad habit of confinement is the most complicated part about diet. On the one hand, many daily foods such as vegetables and fruits are not allowed to be eaten, and even water is not allowed to be drunk; on the other hand, some strange things are required, such as rice wine water, brown sugar boiled eggs, biochemical soup, etc. Some more enlightened doctors will tell you that of course you should drink water, but you should drink warm water, not cold water; you should eat vegetables and fruits, but do not eat irritating foods such as onions, garlic, and peppers. In fact, you can drink warm water, cold water, or even ice water. In American hospitals, after the mother has given birth, the nurse will hand her a glass of ice water or ice cream. Spicy and irritating food may affect the taste of milk, but as long as the baby can tolerate it, it can still be eaten. Breastfeeding mothers should not eat more gas-producing foods, including soybeans, garlic, broccoli, etc. The ingredients in these foods will enter the milk and cause bloating in children.
Breastfeeding women should be careful not to drink alcohol and drink less coffee and tea. In addition, those strange confinement meals and medicated meals, as well as some postpartum "tonics" need to be contraindicated, because the ingredients and efficacy have not been proven, and regular foods are the safest foods.
5. Is there really such a thing as confinement disease?
"Confinement disease" is a folk saying in my country. It is said that if you are not careful during the confinement period, some diseases will occur. Specific symptoms include waist and leg pain, joint pain, headache, toothache, etc. There is even a weird theory of "confinement disease and confinement support". Some obstetricians and gynecologists in regular hospitals also agree with the traditional custom of confinement, but their understanding also comes from the private sector, because there is no concept of confinement disease in formal medical textbooks.
As people age, they are more likely to suffer from various chronic diseases. These diseases or discomforts are often explained as being caused by careless confinement. In fact, no matter how strict confinement is, you may still suffer from various chronic diseases in old age. There is no statistical data showing the correlation between confinement and certain diseases. The so-called confinement syndrome is just that people have preconceived ideas and then look for examples to support their own opinions. This phenomenon is called "confirmation bias" in psychology, and it is a very unscientific but very common attitude.
6. Do foreigners undergo confinement?
There are some traditional practices on postpartum care all over the world. Let’s call them “confinement”. The methods of confinement are similar in different countries. For example, most people require bed rest and keeping warm, which may be caused by their past life and low cognitive level; and the food eaten during confinement often varies greatly, which is obviously caused by the diversity of diets in different places. Even in China, confinement customs vary from region to region. The diverse characteristics of confinement clearly show that it is actually just a cultural phenomenon and has nothing to do with science.
If you compare the phenomenon of confinement with the degree of development of the country, you will find that the more developed the country, the less common the phenomenon of confinement. Women in Western Europe, North America and Japan basically do not confine themselves after giving birth; places that are both developed and traditional, such as South Korea and Taiwan, China, have basically abandoned the harmful customs of confinement, but retain many irrelevant details; China Mainland China is the hardest hit area for confinement patients. Not only is there no evidence that the custom of confinement is positively related to women’s health and longevity, on the contrary, around the world, women in European, American and Japanese countries that do not confine themselves have the best health and longest lifespans.
7. Do Chinese people have special physiques?
When it comes to women in European and American countries not confinement after giving birth, some people will always say that their physiques are different from those of Chinese people, and that foreign women are stronger. There are indeed some physiological differences between different races, but these differences must be examined with scientific methods to be meaningful. Using life customs as a standard is unreliable. For example, Caucasian skin is more sensitive to ultraviolet rays and more susceptible to skin cancer. From a scientific point of view, Caucasian people should protect themselves from the sun the most.
However, the reality is that white people love to bask in the sun the most. If we judge based on living customs, we will come to the wrong conclusion that white people should bask in the sun the most.
There has never been any statement in medical textbooks that people of the yellow race need special postpartum care, not to mention that the Japanese and the Chinese are of the yellow race, and there are also many East Asians living in Europe and the United States. They do not need confinement. Are you living a good life too? Some people also say that when Chinese people come to the United States, they eat more meat and become more "angry", so they are not afraid of the cold, etc. These are even more nonsense. There are also many vegetarians in European and American countries. Japanese people eat a lot of seafood. According to Chinese folk saying, doesn't it mean that the "cold" is more severe? Besides, the customs of confinement are also different in different parts of China. If a woman from Gansu marries to Fujian and gives birth to a child, what customs of confinement should she follow?
8. Is there any scientific research on confinement?
As mentioned before, there is no debate in medicine about the disadvantages of traditional confinement, but given that some (developing) countries still retain the custom of confinement, there are also some issues in this regard ( traditional postpartum practice). These studies have shown without exception that traditional confinement is harmful rather than beneficial, and should be vigilant to Chinese maternal and child medical workers and newborn families.
In short, traditional confinement is an unscientific and bad habit. For the health of mothers and babies, these bad habits should be swept into the dustbin of history as soon as possible. How to "confinement" scientifically?
1. Postpartum care for normal delivery
You should take appropriate activities every day according to your own situation; normal delivery is often accompanied by vaginal tear or lateral vaginal incision. In order to relieve the pain of the wound, you can use an ice pack to isolate it. Wear a clean sanitary napkin as a cold compress; to reduce the sting during urination, rinse the vulva with warm water while urinating; use a clean absorbent pad to hold the wound tightly during defecation; keep the wound clean and rinse with a bottle after each defecation Vaginal opening and anus; be careful when sitting, sitting on a pillow or pillow will be more comfortable; brush your teeth every day, keep your body clean, and shower regularly if possible.
2. Care after caesarean section
Relax and rest as much as possible, but daily activities are also essential. Moderate activities are conducive to post-operative recovery; Keep items the baby needs within easy reach; do not move or carry anything heavier than the baby in the first few weeks; pay attention to how you stand and walk; cover coughs, sneezes, and laughter with your hands Near the abdominal wound; if necessary, you can take ibuprofen or paracetamol to relieve pain. These drugs are safe for breastfeeding women; drink enough water (including milk, soup, etc.) and drink more water to replenish the lost energy during production and breastfeeding. Moisture, on the other hand, can prevent constipation; pay attention to urinating more to reduce the risk of urinary tract infection; brush your teeth every day, keep your body clean, and shower regularly if possible.
3. Diet
The maternal diet is not much different from the healthy diet we usually advocate. On this basis, pregnant women can eat more fish, lean meat, milk and nuts to ensure the intake of high-quality protein and essential fatty acids; ensure they drink enough water; they should continue to eat the vitamins and essential fatty acids they took during pregnancy. The so-called cold and spicy food among the people are not taboo. Don't drink alcohol (and don't smoke), drink less coffee and tea, and caffeinated drinks (such as cola, cocoa, Red Bull, etc.), and try to avoid desserts, fast food, and sugary soft drinks.
4. Living and wearing
If possible, keep the indoor temperature at 20-26°C, which is the temperature that the human body feels comfortable. It is okay to use air conditioners, fans, and open windows for ventilation; it is appropriate to dress in a way that the mother feels comfortable, and do not deliberately wear more clothes. Babies should wear one more layer than adults, but don’t overdress.
5. Computers and mobile phones
Pregnant women can use computers and mobile phones, and their radiation is not enough to cause harm. It is not a healthy lifestyle for ordinary people to spend a long time looking at computers and mobile phones. Mothers who are prone to fatigue should pay more attention to it. However, the so-called not to use computers or mobile phones during confinement is completely baseless.
The content refers to the popular science article of Lilac Doctor App: Intron "How to scientifically "confinement""
Editor \ Li Huai