Confinement after Childbirth: Malay-Kelantanese Style

My confinement experience is solely based on what has been practised in the family. There are always similarities from other parts of Kelantan, but some parts may differ! Ingredients used in the diet and the other practises are said to be having healing properties but scientific evidence won't be given as the author is too lazy to do the research or look for more info.

Cheh...I never thought I would take blogging so seriously, especially when I have to ignore that 'look' that my mom gave when she saw me snapping photos of her 'tungku' etc.

To me, anticipation to receive a new baby to the family is always accompanied by the anxiety to face two challenges: the labour pain and the confinement!

With Bea1, the labour lasted for 26 hours. One thing was over followed by another! The confinement lasted for 40 days. People said mothers would forget all about the pain when she sees the baby for the first time. In my case, I once said "For that 40 days in confinement, I'd rather have the labour pain 5 times more".

My sisters said they love confinement as it is 40-day of not lifting a finger to do house chores, taking care of the kids etc. You may agree with them. But before that how about eating ONLY rice and grilled fish for lunch and dinner for the first two weeks.



What I mean by grilled is fish (certain fish only, the non-'gatal' type) smothered with salt and tumeric and grilled in open flame!
Raw young tumeric is also eaten together as 'ulam'. Normally I would throw away my toothbrush as the bristle turned yellowish due to the tumeric.
That drink is some sort of traditional medicine, some roots called 'sipe gederam' cooked in boiled water.

A little variety is added later with beef, again grilled with tumeric and salt. All traces of fat is trimmed, and a lot of times it is hard and 'liat' and soooo goey that it just stays in your mouth forever!



My mother-in-law came to visit us during my confinement with Bea1 and gave a fish recipe to my mom. She uses a lot of black pepper and finally I could have a little gravy. Mom tried to cook it again a few days ago, but I don't know why she is so into tumeric that the thing came out yellow instead of black!

Anyway, I found an article about tumeric being used a lot in confinement here.



Did you notice that no vege or fruit in the pics. That's because none of them is allowed! My mom-in-law (half Javanese) allowed steamed 'sawi' but it is still a no-no to mom.

How do I survive this 'ordeal'? Thank God, Milo is allowed. Very thick Milo and ONLY bun 'kosong' and crackers for breakfast and 'minum petang', and they are heavenly!



I may sound ungrateful, considering that many suffers out there. But seriously I hardly complaint as before I even opened my mouth, mom would start talking how during her time it was very hard to get fresh fish. What was available was dried fish.

We are also bombarded by some gory stories of mothers who did not strictly follow the confinement. One of them is about a mother who ate beef curry, that came with a lot of fat. Her 'thing down there' became wet and smelly all the time that she had to get pregnant, gave birth and do the whole confinement again!

Basically the food should not be fattening, oily, 'sejuk'. As if it works for me, I really can't tell as now in only the second week, I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weigh/figure. And that goes to my waistline too. Mom insisted that it is not only about the figure, but to care 'benda-benda dalam' (sorry don't know how to translate).

Next: 'bertungku' and 'bersalai' plus the conflict with modern medicine