page_title: Postpartum confinement
hierarchical_section_title: Postpartum confinement
caption_attribution_description: English: Mother and Child
context_page_description: Postpartum confinement refers to a traditional practice following childbirth. Those who follow these customs typically begin immediately after the birth, and the confinement lasts for a culturally variable length: typically for one month or 30 days, up to 40 days, two months or 100 days. This postnatal recuperation can include "traditional health beliefs, taboos, rituals, and proscriptions." The practice used to be known as "lying-in", which, as the term suggests, centres around bed rest. In some cultures it may be connected to taboos concerning impurity after childbirth.
  The custom is well-documented in China, where it is known as "Sitting the month". Japanese women know it as "Sango no hidachi" and Korean women know it as sanhujori, which means "recovery after giving birth". In Latin American countries it is called la cuarentena, i.e. "forty days". In India it is called jaappa; in Pakistan, sawa mahina.
  Postpartum confinement refers both to the mother and the baby. Human newborns are so underdeveloped that pediatricians such as Harvey Karp refer to the first three months as the "fourth trimester".
context_section_description: Postpartum confinement refers to a traditional practice following childbirth. Those who follow these customs typically begin immediately after the birth, and the confinement lasts for a culturally variable length: typically for one month or 30 days, up to 40 days, two months or 100 days. This postnatal recuperation can include "traditional health beliefs, taboos, rituals, and proscriptions." The practice used to be known as "lying-in", which, as the term suggests, centres around bed rest. In some cultures it may be connected to taboos concerning impurity after childbirth.
  The custom is well-documented in China, where it is known as "Sitting the month". Japanese women know it as "Sango no hidachi" and Korean women know it as sanhujori, which means "recovery after giving birth". In Latin American countries it is called la cuarentena, i.e. "forty days" (a cognate with the English word "quarantine"). In India it is called jaappa (also transliterated japa); in Pakistan, sawa mahina ("five weeks").
  Postpartum confinement refers both to the mother and the baby. Human newborns are so underdeveloped that pediatricians such as Harvey Karp refer to the first three months as the "fourth trimester". The weeks of rest while the mother heals also protect the infant as it adjusts to the world, and both learn the skills of breastfeeding.
  Almost all countries have some form of maternity leave. Many countries encourage men to take some paternity leave, but even those that mandate that some of the shared parental leave must be used by the father ("father's quota") acknowledge that the mother needs time off work to recover from the childbirth and deal with the postpartum physiological changes.
  A 2016 American book describes the difficulties of documenting these "global grandmotherly customs" but asserts that "like a golden rope connecting women from one generation to the next, the protocol of caring for the new mother by unburdening her of responsibilities and ensuring she rests and eats shows up in wildly diverse places". These customs have been documented in dozens of academic studies, and commonly include support for the new mother (including a release from household chores), rest, special foods to eat (and ones to avoid), specific hygiene practices, and ways of caring for the newborn.
  Martha Wolfenstein and Margaret Mead wrote in 1955 that the postpartum period meant a "woman can be cherished and pampered without feeling inadequate or shamed". The 2016 review that quoted them cites customs from around the world, from Biblical times to modern Greece: 
  From the data it seems that women were housebound for a number of days after the birth and the length of this period of seclusion varied by caste or ethnic group [in Nepal]. This is a phenomenon found across the globe, including in high-income countries in the recent past. The length of time a woman is secluded or rested varied across different countries and the principles underpinning this isolation (to heal vs. being unclean) also seem to differ greatly. After the period of seclusion there is often a ceremony to purify women to publicly accept them back into daily life. The literature supports the concept of a resting – a lengthy lie-in or lying-in period, a period of seclusion, as women need to rest in order to heal, yet it may mean that they are neglected.
caption: A mother and her newborn rest in bed, breastfeeding
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