Special Water for Lying-in Women

When I first saw this bottle of water in Super Ranch Market (Chinese Supermarket) in Phoenix, I was totally shocked!

I can’t believe there is one kind of special water for lying-in women.

In China, after a woman just delivered a baby, she will be forced to stay in bed for a month like a prisoner. There are lots of traditional rules about that.

In that particular month, the new mother can not wash her hair; can not enjoy the air-conditioning even in super hot summer; must be covered by a think quilt; must eat some traditional food, which are made by secret recipes; can not show up in cold wind; can’t cry; can’t touch the cold water……

Those special rules are all come from ancient times. Now in modern world, although many people criticize it because they think it’s insanitary. If a woman doesn’t wash her hair for a whole month, it’s very dirty and will breed millions of bacteria. In some traditional family, they still keep the tradition to require the new mother to obey the rules, which sometimes cause many conflicts among family members.

In the whole world, no matter where you are, the new generation always has gap with the old generation, especially in China. Since 1980, China has opened the door to the world for nearly 40 years. In one night, all the new and modern things flushed into china. Many people are very happy to accept the new stuff and want to follow up the world. However, the old generation, like my grandma and grandpa, they still keep most traditional ideas in their mind and are unwilling to change them.

Most of the young mums want to give up the lying-in culture while their mum and mother-in-law still want to use the tradition to take care of them.

As a result, listen to your mum or not, it’s a question.