Maternity

I wrote this two weeks ago and never got a chance to post it. Unfortunately my mom got sick a week ago and needed to have her gallbladder removed. She is still in the hospital due to some complications. Please pray for her. I have been home alone for the past week. It was a shocker for me to go from having someone cater to me 24/7 to suddenly have no one with a baby during the day. I am managing and mostly just worried sick about my mom. We are hoping and praying that she comes home in a couple of days. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have a lot of family in the area, we total over 60 people, this includes, uncles, cousins siblings and nieces. It is a lot for a family that immigrated to the US within the last 20 years. I figured I share a few things from our culture during a birth of a child. Don’t quote me on it, this is my experience based on living in the city and each region has its own customs.

1. We have a family get together (woman only) where we celebrate the upcoming birth of a child. This I guess is the equivalent of a baby shower but no gifts are bought for the baby. It is considered bad luck to buy gifts before a child is born. So for my baby shower the family gave me money and gifts were given after the baby arrived.

2. After the birth of a child the woman in the family play a cructial role during the recovery of the mother. A woman is suppose to rest for 40 days after birth and the mothers, aunts or grandmothers are there for the entire time. My mom came two days before my scheduled c-section and I ended going in to labor the night she came. She will be staying with me the entire 3 month of maternity leave. Not everyone’s mother can do this but it is the norm to at least help out for the first 40 days.

3. After giving birth for the first 10 days the mother is suppose to stay in bed and only focus on feeding the baby. The rest is taken care of by relatives. I think on the 10th day the mother and baby go outside for some sun bathing. I was actually moving around right after I came from the hospital. My mother kept complaining to anyone that listened that I had ignored her orders. For the first two wks our days involved with her giving me food & drinks ever couple of hours and telling me to lie down, put socks on, put my night gown on in 80C weather :). Lets just say I should have listened to her specially in taking the much needed rest when baby was asleep. I had a lot of visitors and I felt obliged to keep them company and I was also restless. No one expects the new mother to be entertaining guests; she is to stay in her bedroom with the baby. By the third wk I was feeling the loss of sleep and was so tired and my back was hurting.

4. As far as food there are a few items new mothers constantly eat/drink. We have a drink made of roasted barley flour. It is boiled in water with spiced clarified butter and honey. This is to be drank throughout the day and night and believed to help with breast milk. Since I am on gluten free diet my mom made it with the root flour of F..alse Ban.an.a Tree which is also used back home. In addition we make a drink of roasted flaxseed flour with honey that I have been drinking nonstop. For guests porridge made of barley floor with spiced clarified butter is offered. I actually used to like the porridge but since on gluten free diet I couldn’t touch it.

5. It is customary for guests to bring cooked food. This is done throughout the pregnancy and after. I think I have been enjoying this most especially my aunts cooking. I think my mom is also enjoying it since she gets to see a lot of family. I am so greatful for family and they make this wonderful life changing event more enjoyable.