Reply to Immigrant/similar families: how did you handle entrenched folk beliefs?

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Reply to "Immigrant/similar families: how did you handle entrenched folk beliefs?"

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[quote=Anonymous]I very much followed the South Asian postpartum and newborn practices that my mom and MIL told me to do in US. My mom and aunt were visiting me for the first 3 months.

- Keeping baby and mom warm, (yes, the no "direct air on mom-baby" is a real thing). Sweating is considered good way to get rid of toxins. 
- making mom drink hot beverages, 
- daily multiple warm oil massages  for mom and baby, 
- daily warm bath (with lots of herbs) bath for mom, 
- belly button care with turmeric poultice. 
- sunning indoors in morning sun. 
- minimal reading or devices or watching TV.  Your eyes are also weakened with pregnancy and childbirth and you are not allowed to strain them. I listened to a lot of audio books.  
- No knitting or needle work
- specific foods for mom to build up the bone strength, repair injuries, increase milk production and get the gut working well
- specific mouth washes, binding the stomach with a long piece of fabric, 
- my MIL wanted my mom to give me a very high protein drink - (whole milk boiled with dried ginger powder, cardamom, edible gum powder, sesame seeds powder, almond, walnuts, pine nuts, prunes, cashew powder, raisins, foxtail nuts)- at least 3 times a day.  I was given some kind of warm beverage each time I nursed my baby. 
- easy to digest foods with fiber in it. They believed that what I eat will impact the gut health of my babies so I was given specific foods. 
- soaking in sitz bath with chamomile and calendula flowers. 
- no work for mom until the postpartum bleeding stops.  
- no visitors for first 6 weeks. 
- I was only responsible for playing with my baby and nursing her. My mom took care of all the other tasks of baby care. 
- (Of course, no sex for first 3-6 months at least)

We had hired house cleaners, someone who could do grocery for us, do the laundry, cook etc. - as is our cultural practice.  I basically followed whatever my mom asked me to do.  She did not want me to start solids before 9 months and to EBF my babies.  And I did that because culturally a lot of support is put in place when women have children to enable us to follow these rules. 
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