Our alumni Eleanor shares her reflections from her newfound motherhood and how TCM empowers her in this journey.
2022 was a year of revelations for me, as I welcomed my first-born into a pandemic-stricken society. The hospital was a cold environment – my husband could not accompany me at A&E due to COVID measures, he could only come into the labour ward, which was not available due to shortage at that time. Luckily I only had to wait for about 3 hours before one became available. After 15-20 minutes in the ward, my baby was born. For those of you who don’t know, labour usually takes 12 – 19 hours. So 3 hours and 20 minutes seems short. Actually, I was in labour for almost 48 hours, just that I had waited at home till the time was right. Without epidural or any painkiller.
Before you think I am trying to boast, no I am not. I studied TCM because I love natural remedies. I love how the body works its own magic to keep in balance. And I love how we can use nature to come back into balance when we are ill. Hence I made up my mind to give birth as natural as possible. Pregnancy is not even a state of illness, so I was very against using unnecessary medical interventions such as inductions and painkillers to aid my delivery. This was reaffirmed by the fact that many people I knew had to undergo caesarean sections after these medical interventions. Giving birth naturally without medications was such a beautiful and empowering experience. I won’t list the benefits here, but you could check out the Bradley method or Lamaze method. Besides its benefits, these methods also go into detail how one can have a painless or almost painless birthing experience. (I wouldn’t say it was painless for me, but it is a pain that was bearable.)
Birthing was the start of all things new, from breastfeeding to postpartum to taking care of a new- born. What we learnt in TCM gynaecology came flooding back into my mind – 乳痈、缺乳、产后 恶露不绝. I met so many moms who faced these issues and gained so much more insight compared to what we had learnt in school. And even though our textbook mentioned that red or pink lochia should not last for more than 3 weeks, I learnt that most women actually experienced lochia for at least a month and there was no need to actually intervene. Later on when my baby reached around 7 months, he contracted COVID from my hubby. It was time for paediatric Tuina to shine – 清天河水、 打马过天河、退六腑 and his fever was gone after 2 days without the need for any other medications.
Society tells us many things, we have to study well to get a good job, we have to marry the person who is of a similar background, we have to work hard to achieve the 5Cs, so on and so forth. But for me, choosing the path of TCM already meant pursuing the alternative way. Just because the norm is to feed our kids paracetamol when they’re ≥38.5°C, or use epidural during childbirth, it doesn’t mean it is the only way or even the best way to go. Society might always try to prescribe us with the “best” methods to do things, but as with how TCM is about personalised medicine, we have to figure out for ourselves what is most suitable for ourselves to live our best lives.
From PULSE Magazine 6th Edition
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