穿着睡衣被软禁的30天——“悲壮的”中国妈妈们

原作者：
来源For Chinese Moms Birth Means 30 Days In Pajamas
译者谁^^

July 20, 2011

2011年7月20日

Imagine not beingallowed to go outside, have a shower or drink cold water for an entire month.It might sound like a kind of house arrest. But every year tens of millions ofChinese women submit to this willingly. This is the traditional Chinesepractice of confinement during the month after childbirth, with some moderntwists.

试想一下整整一个月不许你出门、不许你洗澡或喝凉水会是什么感受。可能你会感觉这听起来有点像被软禁起来了，但是每年会有千百万的中国女性自愿听命于这样的安排。这是中国的传统惯例，女性在分娩后一个月都要遵循，只不过现在为了适应现代社会的需求又有了新的变化。

Baby Momo and hismother, Wu Lili, haven't left the three rooms of an apartment in Beijing for 29days now. It's the last day of their traditional 30-day confinement period.

新妈妈吴丽丽（音）和她的小儿子默默（音）生活在北京一个三室的公寓里，他们已经有29天没有出过家门了。今天是他们忍受这传统的30天“限制期”的最后一天了。

In Chinese, this isliterally called "sitting the month," as new mothers are pretty muchexpected to just sit around in pajamas for a month to recover from childbirth.But there are a lot of rules, and Wu Lili is struggling with them — even thoughshe's on her very last day.

中国人管这个时期叫“坐月子”，从字意思面的我们就能理解其所指，因为大家都理所应当地认为新妈妈们在这一个月里就应该穿着睡衣在家无所事事地坐着、歇着。但是歇着也不能怠慢、也是有很多规矩的，吴丽丽就深受其害、在这些规矩的束缚下痛苦挣扎——连月子的最后一天也未能得到丝毫放松。

"I really want toeat fruit and the other things I'm not allowed to eat, like snacks," Wusays.

“我真的很想吃水果还有其他一些他们不许我吃的东西，比如零食什么的，”吴女士说。

She's not allowed to eatraw fruit or vegetables, or drink coffee, cold drinks or even cold water, whichcan only be drunk tepid or hot. These rules are aimed at restoring balance tothe new mother's body after childbirth. But Wu has had enough.

月子期间，她被禁吃水果或蔬菜，也不能喝咖啡、冷饮，甚至连凉水也不行——只能喝温的或者热的。这些规矩的制定旨在帮助刚生完孩子的新妈妈恢复身体的均衡营养和代谢，但是吴女士已经受够了，她忍不下去了。

"It's really thehardest thing to bear about confinement," she says. "The first thingis that you can't wash. The second thing is that the food is so bland. But youreally have to persist, and it's very difficult."

“限制这种东西简直是太难熬了，”她抱怨道。“最难受的首先就是不能洗澡；其次就是吃的东西太清淡，没有什么味道；但是还是要坚持下去，这简直是太难了。”

Her feet, she says, areboiling, as she plods around in thick woolen socks and padded slippers. But shemust guard against getting a chill; Chinese doctors warn that could lead tojoint problems or illness later on.

据她自己描述，她必须穿着厚厚的羊毛袜子，外边还得套一双棉拖鞋，她的脚像被架在锅上煮一样难受。但是为了不着凉，她必须得这样；因为中国医生向来提醒大家，这时候着凉可能会导致关节问题，甚至会落下病根。

"Sitting themonth," or zuo yuezi, is deeply embedded in Chinese culture. It was evenmentioned in the 2,000-year-old Book of Changes, or I-ching, according to ZhaoZixiang, Wu's doctor of traditional Chinese medicine.

“坐月子”这种观念已经深深地植根于中国文化之中。甚至在两千年前的书籍《易经》中就曾被提到过，吴女士的医生赵子祥，一位中医，这样告诉我们。

"Chinese people aremost concerned about balancing yin and yang, in all things," he says."If the yin and yang in your body are balanced, you won't get sick. Ifthey're out of balance, it's easy to get sick."

“中国人都相信万物皆关乎阴阳之平衡，”他说。“如果我们体内的阴气和阳气互相平衡，人就不会生病。相反，如果阴阳失衡，就容易生病。”

When little Momo wails,a nurse swoops in to take control, wheeling the baby off to another room.

当小默默哭的时候，很快会有护士进来掌控局面，把孩子推到另一个房间。

Wu is "sitting themonth" as only China's newly rich can. Instead of being at home, she wentstraight from the hospital to a superluxury confinement center that costsaround $500 a day. That buyspeace of mind: 24-hour-a-day supervision from trained nurses; a nutritionist;doctors on call to diagnose every baby sniffle; and someone ensuring that therules are followed at all times — not just by the new mother but by herextended family too.

吴女士“坐月子”的方式只有中国有钱人才能享受。一般的家庭都在家里坐月子，她出院后则直接被送到了超豪华的做月子中心，费用要在每天5百美元左右。花钱买个安心：全天24小时专职护士看护；营养学家亲自指导饮食；值班医生全天候监护新生儿的健康状况；为了保证新妈妈守规矩，还有人专门负责监督——不仅仅监督新妈妈，还要管住她的家属。

"My mum thinks it'sa pity that she can't come in every day to cuddle my baby," Wu says,enumerating the reasons she's been given for this by the center's experts."It's not very good for the development of newborn baby's bones to becuddled too much. We don't want him being held too much as he might become toodependent. I pretty much only hold him when I nurse him."

“不能每天都进来抱抱我的孩子，我妈妈觉得很遗憾，”吴女士说，她列举了中心的专家给出的原因。“被抱着的时间太长对新生儿的骨骼发育不好。孩子被抱的时间太长可能会容易产生依赖性，我们不希望这样的事情发生。我每天也就是喂他吃奶的时候抱抱他。”

And the rules governingdiet are stricter still. At this postpartum center, six meals a day areprepared off-site, including a host of special soups, designed to increase thenew mothers' milk supply. Typical fare is a soup of pig's feet and peanuts, oran oily carp soup, drunk directly after childbirth, which is supposed tostimulate the milk supply to begin.

产后中心对饮食的要求也极其严格。在这里，一天要吃六餐，包括特别为保证新妈妈奶水充足而研制的各种特殊的汤。常吃的有花生猪脚汤，还有产后马上要喝的鲤鱼汤，这个据说是用来下奶的。

Such postpartum centersare popping up in cities across China. But the founder of this center, RenWeige, says it's as high-end as they go.

这样的产后中心在中国的各大城市如雨后春笋般出现。但是这个中心的创建者任微歌（音）说，他们追求的是高端。

"It's impossiblethat the environment could be more luxurious than this," she says."We're in a five-star serviced apartment. My [caregivers] are all trainednurses. Whatever way you look at it, either from the software or the hardware,this is already the best that it could be."

“任何产后中心的坏境都不可能比这更豪华了，”她说。“我们的公寓是五星级水准的。我们的护理者都是经过专业训练的护士。硬件、软件，不管从哪方面看，这已经是可能达到的最高的程度了。”

That even means that newmothers are hand-washed by two nurses, who wipe them down with washclothssteeped in Chinese medicine about once a week. They're not supposed to bathefor 30 days following childbirth, but the strictures of traditional confinementare being bent to the needs of modern women. Some argue that this newgeneration of Chinese mothers — who, as part of the generation of only childrenunder the one-child policy, have not grown up with younger brothers or sisters— need help more than ever before.

其实这样的描述还不完全，在这样的护理中心，新妈妈们连洗澡都由两名护士伺候着，护士会用中药浸泡过的毛巾为新妈妈做全身的擦洗，大约一周一次。这些新妈妈本来一个月30天都不应该洗澡的，但是在此处，传统规矩向现代女性的需求低下了头颅。一些人认为，作为计划生育政策下的独生女一代，由于成长过程中没有过照顾弟弟妹妹的经历，比起从前的女性，这一代的中国妈妈需要更多的帮助和指导。

"They're kidsthemselves," says the center's pediatrician, Zhang Jianna. "Theydon't really know how to look after kids. So they have even more demands.They're just happy that someone knows what to do."

“她们自己都还是孩子呢，”中心的儿科医生张剑娜（音）说。“她们根本不清楚该怎么照顾小孩，她们会有很多问题要问。有人能指导她们怎么去做她们会非常高兴。”

A nurse is even teachingWu Lili how to sing lullabies to little Momo, though halfway through the newmom gives up. At this postpartum center, paid nurses show the new mothers whatto do, rather than their own mothers or aunties. And the center has tweakedsome of the stricter rules, such as the prohibition on washing.

一位护士甚至还教吴丽丽怎么给小默默唱摇篮曲，虽然这位新妈妈学到一半就放弃了。在这所产后中心，护士们替代了以往母亲或姨妈的职责，负责教新妈妈们做什么、怎么做。他们还对以往更加严厉的规矩做了一些让步和调整，比如禁止洗澡这一点。

But despite China's warpspeed modernization, the age-old practice of "sitting the month" isstill flourishing among its young — and making money for its entrepreneurs.

不管中国的现代化发展如何迅猛，古老的习俗“坐月子”在年轻一代中仍然风靡——还为抓住这个商机的企业家创造了不俗的收益。

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