Postpartum confinement food

Before getting into the details on confinement food, it is important to note that there are three main confinement traditions: the Chinese, the Malay and the Indian. All three methods have many similarities but also some specific variances. We can discuss the differences in another blogpost. This time we would like to write about the typical food recommended in the Chinese confinement process. 

According to Chinese medicine, confinement foods primarily serve to nourish and replenish the blood and give the body more yang, or warmth, through “warm” foods. New mothers will benefit most from a balanced diet of cooked vegetables and protein as well as from eating more often – five to six meals a day. Ginger, Chinese angelica root (dang gui), red beans (adzuki), cooking wines and sesame oil are believed to give warmth to the body. Common confinement dishes include pig’s trotters cooked with ginger and vinegar, chicken cooked in sesame oil, pork liver and kidney, a traditional tonic brewed from 10 herbs, and fish soup. Fish soup boiled with papaya is believed to be beneficial for milk production. Other foods that have their own benefits are liver which replenishes lost blood, kidney which eases pain, longan which promotes sleep, red dates which nourishes blood, and goji berries which enhances “qi” (i.e., vital energy) and tonifies the blood. 

Cooling food and drinks are said to be avoided. Cooling foods include sweet fruits like banana, watermelon and strawberries, raw foods, leafy vegetables such as lettuce and kale, cold drinks and bitter herbs like mustard greens, chicory, and dandelion leaves.

Feedback from mothers who practice confinement after giving birth is often that the dishes were very tasty and reminded them of home-cooked food from when they were young. Possibly even more important was that mothers could always find food in the fridge whenever they were feeling hungry – which is pretty much always in those first few weeks after giving birth.