LTO wrote:I drew the line at potentially harmful traditional procedures . . . . .

Cam Nivag wrote:Is the knife thing real? Shit.

LTO wrote:Yes, the knife (or scissors) are real, though usually out of reach.

Roasting or baking the woman is done more in the countryside than in the city, though some still do it here. It involves putting the woman's bed over a heat source and covering her up for an extended period, basically to cause he body temperature to rise. There is also the practice of feeding the mother a quantity of alcohol (not sure how much, but enough to feel it and more), usually rice wine or something similar, shortly after birth. The idea behind both practices, as I understand it, is to restore balance between hot and cold in the woman's body - heat having been lost in the process of birth (per this particular theory of medicine.) This is also why you see post-natal mothers wearing parkas and wholly caps in 35C heat.

Diet after birth is also sometimes based on the same theory - the restoration of heat to the body. For example, you may find her eating fried pork smothered in piles of black pepper, sometimes to the exclusion of most other foods.

I remember taunting my wife with pizza, which I know she loves. She'd been eating pepper pork for a week or more, and I sat there in front of her eating a pizza with excessive glee. She resisted and resisted and finally broke down and had a piece. Then she felt worried and guilty. Next day, midday, she returned from the market and said she had bad news. She said she told the old women (i.e. the ultimate source of knowledge on birth related issues) what she had done (i.e. eat pizza) and they said that she may very well die. I told her I agreed with the old women, that should would surely die. She gasped and asked how long I thought she had. I told her in all seriousness, "probably no more than 60 or 70 years."