Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Chinese Superstitions during Pregnancy
China is a good country to be pregnant. With the one child policy, people treat you really well. They offer you seats on the subway or bus. They talk about how radiant you look. They don't let you carry anything heavy and are generally very considerate.
They have quite a few superstitions too, sharing a few I came across...
Dragon Babies
Everywhere you look this year, you can find pregnant women. The chinese believe that the year of the dragon is a good year to have babies, as the baby will have similar qualities of a dragon. The dragon also symbolises the emperor in Chinese mythology.
Interesting Read - Baby boom in the Dragon Year
http://chinachallenges.blogs.com/my_weblog/2011/12/the-dragon-year-baby-boom.html
Cold drinks/food during the first trimester:
The chinese believe that your womb is an incubator for your baby.
The hens sit on their eggs to keep it warm so they can hatch. Similarly during pregnancy you must eat hot / warm food and avoid cold drinks or food.
Eating white colored food:
Milk, egg white and other light colored food will help you having a fair skinned baby
Post natal care:
The first month after delivery is called the "sitting month". Women who just had a baby are not allowed to do any sort of activity including taking a bath. The belief is, as their body is weak they may catch cold.
Also, bird's nest and other health boosting soup has to be consumed by the new mother . (including eating your own placenta)
The women are also not allowed to sit or sleep in rooms with the air conditioner on.
The women cut their hair to chin length after delivery as long hair is considered to weaken your baby.
Have you heard of any more superstitions you would like to share?
Whether you follow these or not, the main thing is to just enjoy this phase and not worry too much. Having a baby is a blessing and can only bring you joy!
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First of all, does the one child policy apply to expats, i.e you? Interesting superstitions, but I found eating placenta quite gross !
ReplyDeleteNo Smitha! Our children don't get Chinese citizenship by being born here, so we don't contribute to the population here. So the policy doesn't apply to us...
ReplyDeleteThey've relaxed the rule now, you can have more than one child if you belong to a minority group, or if both parents are single kids (the one child policy was introduced in the 1980's)...For the others who want to have more than one they pay a very heavy fine.
I like the idea of your very own blog - nice place to speak your mind. I honestly have not heard any of these superstitions. But hey! there is always a first!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kira! Created the blog when we just came in to Beijing...Thanks for dropping by :)
ReplyDeleteHey Sandra, visited ur blog after a long time and interesting to see how it has changed :-) I found some similarities between the beliefs expressed by chinese people and us Indians eg not eating anything cold, not sleeping in AC after the baby or taking a bath( that's probably ancient!) or doing any heavy work or going out for the first 40days.. I wonder what chinese women of today's generation think about these beliefs and whether they stick to it. Good luck and good health!
ReplyDeletePradnya
I have been thinking of eating my placenta but the idea still sounds gross!! but everyone says so... I use a cream with placenta in it and it does wonders to my skin ;)
ReplyDelete