Advice for the New Mom

Differences in post partum behaviors between East & West Cultures
The Mandarin-Chinese term Zuoyezi translates into English as "sitting out a month," which refers to the traditional Chinese custom of having new mothers rest for a month at home, often under the care of their mother-in-law, for a month after delivery. During this month here are certain things the new mother can and can’t do

- Eat only certain foods and herbs that are supposed to help with the mother's
recovery. Unfortunately this means suffering through weeks of the same
herbal chicken soup.
- Going outside and exercise are not allowed for up to a month after delivery.
- Don’t wash hair and body. If you do, wait until hair dries up before sleep.
If not, a new mom may suffer headache or neck pain.
- Wear warm clothes, even if you or the baby aren’t hot. Cold=sickness
- Don’t brush teeth and comb hair
- Avoid wind
- Don’t eat fruits and vegetables or cold foods. Eating cold fruits and
vegetables will make your bones hurt.
- Only drink hot water, don’t drink cold liquids. Drinking cold water can cold
can cause arthritis later on in life.
- Don't watch TV or DVDs and don't use computers or the internet because it's
bad for your eyes.
- Do not take photographs of your infant

According to the Chinese standards I’ve done everything wrong during this last month. Especially, the rule against not taking pictures of our son. Oops! The people here have been very gracious with us despite the fact that we have broken every one of their customs. We constantly have to explain to them that Western customs are very different from Eastern customs- but both are ok. Carson and I seem to be doing fine so far.

One more quick story- we are working on letting Carson cry himself to sleep. We had some university students over this afternoon and Carson began to cry once we put him down. This was unheard of to them. They kept asking if he was ok and one student asked, “In America, is this (meaning letting him cry) against the Child Protection Act? Can you go to jail for this?”

What do you think? Should we be punished for our parenting style?