Hi all,
Time for new discussions.
I had an off-list e-mail from Ritu. Among other things she had this
interesting tidbit of cultural difference for me.
>I am awe-struck at the thought of you handling the baby by yourself
after
>just 5 days. In India, we have a custom that for 40 days after the
delivery
>the girl's mother and aunt/grandmother come to take care of the baby
and the
>new mother. All the new mommy has to do is sleep, eat and feed the
baby. And
>I thought that was hard :o).
So this inspired a thought:
In The Netherlands it used to be the custum that you stayed in the
hospital for 10 days after delivery. When you returned home you got
nursing aid to assist you for another week. But during the last few
years the 'return to nature' movement has been cutting into that
tradition deeply. Now a days in The Netherlands you are supposed to have
your baby at home (something I luckily managed to avoid), then get up
and start caring for the little one as soon as possible. You may slack
on the household for a bit since assistance in the household is given
for about 8 days. If you ask me that is way to short. I was really glad
to have a somewhat longer rest period before I got full responsibillity
over my household back again. It still is tough but with the aid of
family it is somewhat managable. It does help that Tom is such an angel.
I really got lucky on that part. But I do wonder if the Indian custom
isn't much better. Would be interesting to compare the number of women
falling into a depression after giving birth in relation to the custom
regarding the duration of the recovery period.
Any thoughts on this subject perhaps. Are we 'modern' women (;o) )going
back to business after delivery too quickly and if so does this reflect
in the number of women going into depression. Are there other post-natal
traditions perhaps.
Sonja
