Newborn in the home: fatigue and disorganization or pampered care?
For the birth of her second child, Shanghai resident Lisa Renstroem decided to hire a Chinese yuesao (月嫂) to shepherd her and her newborn through the first month. She reckons it was the best decision she's ever made.
The term yuesao refers to women who take care of mother and newborn during the traditional monthlong confinement period called yuezi (月子). The all-encompassing care they give is called zuo yuezi (坐月子), or literally "sitting the month."
Renstroem, a US native married to a Swede, said she first heard about traditional Chinese confinement while living in Hong Kong.
"I heard from foreign friends who had hired confinement nannies when they delivered," she said. "I knew that they would come live with you and your family for at least one month, taking on responsibility for care of the newborn and new mom. It sounded amazing."
Renstroem hired a yuesao named Naya, originally from Anhui Province, who stayed with the family for 28 days at a cost of 17,000 yuan (US$2,378).
Among the mollycoddling services, she made Renstroem various kinds of vegetable soup, which always included wolfberries because they are considered restorative in traditional Chinese medicine.
Noodle soup Naya made for Renstroem during her confinement contained chicken, green vegetables, fungi, carrots, wolfberries and spinach noodles.
While the concept of special care in the month following birth is relatively unknown in the West, foreigners living in China are increasingly embracing its virtues.
Hong Kong resident Taylor Richard, a Canadian native living in Hong Kong, recently shared on YouTube her experience with a yuesao named Carol Chan.
The video, entitled "I Tried Chinese Confinement After Giving Birth," attracted more than 3.1 million viewers, and the comments section drew more than 6,500 mostly positive responses.
"Girl, if I had had this kind of phenomenal postpartum care, my experience would have been completely different," commented one foreign netizen. "America treats mothers like dirt. It made me cry watching this."
The video was so popular and Chan's reputation so manifest that Chan found a job as a confinement companion in Canada.
In the US, postpartum professional help is rare. Parents or other family members may pop in to lend a hand, but for the most part, the mother is on her own caring for her newborn.
Renstroem gave birth to her first son in Stockholm, and the only help she got was from her husband.
"Of course, we managed," she said, "but the difference is like night and day. Having another woman, especially one trained in newborn care, to advise you on the baby's schedule is so helpful to a new mother."
Naya with Renstroem's newborn
With her first child, Renstroem worried that she was doing everything wrong and was tired and disorganized trying to juggle meals for herself while attending to the baby's needs.
"I was in this cloud of sleep deprivation, which made it easy for me to become a bit lax about baby care," she said. "My second baby slept through the night much sooner than my first, and that was entirely down to the schedule set by our yuesao."
Ayi Matchmakers, a major Shanghai housekeeper agency that caters to expats living in the city, told Shanghai Daily that more customers in recent years have become interested in confinement services. In fact, the agency is short of English-speaking yuesao to meet demand.
"As information becomes more readily available through the Internet, social media and word-of-mouth, Westerners living in China are increasingly aware of the yuesao concept," said Anne Stehlin, a Danish native and co-founder of the agency.
She added, "Westerners living in China may not have access to an extended support network of family and friends who can assist with postpartum care, so employing a yuesao helps fill the gap by providing practical help, emotional support and guidance during the crucial postpartum period."
The agency said that its yuesao staff must go through maternal care training and have at least five years of experience.
"Postpartum care is a very intense job," said Stehlin. "It often requires knowledge and experience with traditional Chinese medicine to improve general well-being. Yuesao will also know about breastfeeding techniques, infant sleeping patterns and baby hygiene. A large part of their job is further to provide guidance about nutrition in order to enhance recovery and milk production."
Xu Duanqing, a yuesao from Anhui Province, is one example. She is good at planning meals for new mothers and help them produce milk.
"Clients from different cultural background have different demands, especially on diet," she said. "Westerners are usually quite casual about meals, but Asians pay more attention to a balanced diet. However, we don't just add traditional herbal remedies mechanically to their meal plans."
Chinese-style soup is widely favored. Chicken, pork ribs and fish are used in the base, and various vegetables are added according to a client's preferences.
Xu Duanqing has formed bond with many foreign families she worked with during her 10- plus years of experience as a yuesao.
After graduating from a training school where she studied maternal and child care, Xu started to work as a yuesao in 2011. She has worked with families from around the world, including the United States, France, Russia and Brazil.
"I learned English in school and then perfected it while working," she said, "so I don't have problems communicating with my clients now."
Xu said that she appreciates the respect and friendships her role evokes.
"Every client asks if I am getting enough sleep and if I am eating well in their home," she said. "One French family, at the end of my month there, cooked dinner for me and took a lot of pictures of me and their baby. It was really a joy working for them."
The pampering care encompassed in zuo yuezi has a somewhat negative connotation with some people because it harks back to the past, when new mothers, for a month, were forbidden from going outside, taking showers, brushing their teeth or using air conditioning on scorching hot days.
"Confinement is necessary because after delivery, women have relative weak organs due to pregnancy and labor," said Yu Rong, an obstetrician of more than 30 years. "But mothers have to approach the postpartum period scientifically and not stick strictly to rigid rules of tradition. Mental health care is equally important because hormone fluctuation may increase the risk of postpartum depression."
