Mother Roasting

What is this? A worldwide practice of warming mums immediately after giving birth and in the weeks that follow. It is very important to  keep wind and cold from entering. The Chinese call it zuo yuezi. The Vietnamese, nam lua in. Mother Roasting. read here

It is simply the practice of keeping a woman warm immediately after birth and in the first few weeks following birth. Cross-culturally, it is believed to seal up emotional, physical, and spiritual gateways that have been opened by birth. It is a way of protecting a woman’s body, her newborn, and, as a result, nourish her back into being.

In cultures all over the world mothers and babies have been kept warm through various means. In Fiji, new mums are processed in vassissilli – steaming herbs and heavy belly massage. In Korea, (See below) steaming with moxa and other herbs.  In Malaysia rocks are warmed and placed over the new mother’s shrinking abdomen. Many cultures bound mums bellies to allow the muscles to remember what they were to do – and to give support after all that effort.  In other cultures new fathers light a fire near or under the mother’s bed that is kept burning for weeks. In still others, warming sand, oil, and herbs are heated and applied to the mother.Mother Roasting is practised in many traditional cultures as part of recovery from birth and to help with the demands of early mothering and is usually accompanied by specific foods and herbs to be consumed, belly binding of various kinds and a period of at least a month of self care away from normal life. Based on solid traditional principles, mother roasting may also involve massaging and warming specific areas of the new mothers body to restore energy and to ensure the digestive, liver and kidney energy systems, whilst recharging the new mum’s spirits.

In Malaysia, a special stone that has been heated in a fire, is wrapped in a cloth and placed on the abdomen. In Thailand, a fire was lit at the mother’s bedside, where she would lie day and night rotating her body every half an hour. In the Hopi Indian culture in Arizona, the mother was rested on top of a heated bed of sand and a sheepskin, and then covered well. In all these cultures, during this time she is nurtured, massaged, fed nourishing foods and supported in her recuperation from birth by family helping to care both for her and her newborn.

YOU can do your own version – look online for what is about – and make do  . .

If you have been iced, please come in and get me to pull the cold out as it lasts for the rest of your life and messes with all other life functions ..

In Australia over the past 15 years, and seemingly coming to NZ – women are supplied with ICE to put on their just birthed perineum and on their engorged breasts as though they had a footballer’s ankle needing to go back on the field!!! From here – all sorts of mischief starts up.

My recent personal experience

Visit to the World Traditional Medicine Expo 2013