這是一篇關(guān)于坐月子的事情，有西醫(yī)跟中醫(yī)之間的比較。雖然很多人覺(jué)得中醫(yī)是偽科學(xué)，應(yīng)該用雙盲測(cè)試去檢驗(yàn)中醫(yī)是否具有科學(xué)性。但是呢，這個(gè)太復(fù)雜，不是你我能證明的。看看文章好了。

對(duì)于文章中說(shuō)的坐月子，不能刷牙，不能洗澡洗頭。這我真的沒(méi)辦法接受。什么注意休息啊之類的，這倒是真理。還有很多人坐月子好像是每天吃大補(bǔ)，天天一只雞之類的。6666

學(xué)語(yǔ)言句型比詞匯更有價(jià)值，做句子的替換練習(xí)。

When my aunt learned I was pregnant with my fourth child, shebegged（懇求、乞討）me to respect the Chinese tradition of zuo yue zi, or“sitting the month”（中文指坐月子）. Traced back to as early as the year 960, zuo yue zi is a set of diet and lifestyle restrictions practiced after birth to restore a woman's "broken body."

Traditionally, your motherenforces（強(qiáng)制實(shí)施、強(qiáng)迫）zuo yue zi. But my mother died when I turned 21, and I was raised by a father who championed all things Chinese butridiculed（嘲笑）the zuo yue zi restrictions he'd heard about: Do not wash your hair. Do not take showers. Do not brush your teeth. Do not carry your newborn baby, climb stairs, shed tears, drink or eat cold foods. Do not have sex, use the air conditioner, leave the house, read, watch TV or surf the Internet.

Zuo yue zi is somewhatcontroversial（有爭(zhēng)議的）because the advice to take a month's rest can beinterpreted（解釋、理解、演繹；做口譯）widely. For example, the ideas that one shouldn't wash hair, take showers, brush teeth, use an air conditioner or leave the house all stem from the belief that childbirth brings significant amounts of fluid and blood loss. According to traditional Chinese medicine, blood carries chi（氣）, your "life force," which fuels all the functions of the body. When you lose blood, you lose chi, and this causes your body to go into a state of yin (cold). When yin (cold) and yang (hot) are out of balance, your body will suffer physical disorders.

Some folks, such as a woman in China who died ofheatstroke（中暑）last year, follow the restrictions to an extreme. Others are more relaxed, taking showers or using air conditioning as long as cold air does not blow directly on them.

Born and raised in（在某地方生長(zhǎng)的）the United States and a graduate of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, I could not resist examining the evidence relating to zuo yue zi - and I foundinconsistent（不一致的、反常的）results.On the plus side（好的方面）were findings that a long recovery period improved a mother's health-related quality of life and led to better bonding with her child. But a 2014 study of Chinese women found that limiting physical activity for a month was bad formuscular and cardiovascular health（肌肉與心血管系統(tǒng)的健康）and increasedpostpartum depression（產(chǎn)后抑郁癥）.

Another study found that while sitting the month helped some women return to their pre-pregnancy weight, it also seemed to causehigh cholesterol and high blood glucose（膽固醇與血糖高）and created feelings of "extreme sadness" from beinghomebound（（由于年老或疾病而）困居家中的；回家的）.

About the only thing scientists seem to agree on is that zuo yue zi is popular in East Asian and Southeast Asian countries and among migrants from these countries, and that health professionals should understand zuo yue zi to properly advise those/who are practicing these cultural beliefs.唯一科學(xué)家們比較認(rèn)同事情是關(guān)于坐月子這件事在東亞和東南亞比較流行，在這些國(guó)家的移民中也比較流行，因此為了給坐月子的人更好的建議，專業(yè)醫(yī)療人士也應(yīng)了解坐月子知道這方面的知識(shí)還是很有需要的。About the only thing…. agree on is that…

Despite the need for more studies to determine whether zuo yue ziadversely（不利的）affects maternal physical and psychological health or, as itsadherents（擁護(hù)者）believe, protects against diseases in later life, I was willing to try it. I had already had three rough postpartum experiences, where only my husband helped me - and only for about two weeks each time - with the cooking, cleaning and child care. I never got to stay in bed.

I'm still somewhattraumatized（受傷的）by the third postpartum experience: With our house in various stages of being boxed up for an unplanned move while our newborn wailed in her crib, I worked anit（虱子卵）comb through our older daughter's long tangled hair, tears running down my face as my husbandlathered（泡沫；弄起泡沫）uphead-lice（虱子）shampoo for our son and me.

For my fourth child, I hoped there was truth to what Shuqi Zhuang - reportedly the first woman to become a traditional Chinese medicine physician in Taiwan - called the "golden opportunity."

Zhuang believed that proper postpartum recovery every time is critical for a woman's health. One time would hopefully help repair damage done after previous pregnancies and save me from a future ofhemorrhoids（痔瘡）,uterine prolapse（子宮脫垂）,urinary incontinence（小便失禁）, weight gain,premature（過(guò)早的）aging and body aches.

I figured there must be a reason thataffluent（富裕的）women in China are willing to spend 27,000 in luxurious centers that specialize in zuo yue zi. In the United States, some friends have spent about $7,000 to stay at zuo yue zi centers, $3,000 (plus food and transportation expenses) to hire a nanny for 30 days or $2,000 to $4,000 to havea month's worth（一個(gè)月的量）of special postpartum meals delivered to their home.

So when my fourth child, a girl, was born, my aunt gifted me 30 days of meals delivered by Jing Mommy, a California-based service that promises "delicious and convenient meals for the postpartum recovery."

A box large enough for my 3-year-old to enjoy as a playhouse arrived the day after I returned home with our newborn. This 94-pound box contained seven freezer bags, one for each day of that week. Each offered a daily pre-made meal of breakfast (congee（粥）, egg), lunch (fish soup,entree（主菜（美）；小菜（英））made from "yang" foods such as ginseng, vegetables and rice), dinner (a specialized soup ofinternal organs（內(nèi)臟）such aspig trotters（豬蹄）or liver, a sesame oil soup, vegetables, rice), two desserts and herbal drinks. It was enough for all of us; we just had to microwave the meals.

I hopped onto Skype to show my aunt the generous spread I would receive each week. "So lucky! Pig feet are very good for joints and milk production," she said in Chinese, peering through the webcam to see the various foods. Because the English labels read the same each day - "Lunch Fish Soup," for example - I asked her to translate the Chinese labels. "**Bass** soup with mushrooms, bass鱸魚 soup with red dates and gojis（枸杞）. .?.?. " She disappeared into her kitchen and returned with ashriveled-up（枯萎）red berry about the size of a raisin. "Goji," she said with respect. "Anti-aging,anti-inflammation（消炎）." In between her thumb and forefinger, she held a red date about the size of a grape. "I put this in all my soups. Protects the liver."

Nicole Huang, chief executive and co-founder of Jing Mommy, hosts free tasting parties and seminars. While her meals are based on Zhuang's rules ofdetoxification（解毒）(Week 1), repairing (Week 2) andrejuvenation（變得年輕）(Week 3 and Week 4), Huang modifies them by watching the reaction of her customers. Her cooks start preparing meals at 5 every morning in a professional kitchen and deliver them before noon to local moms. Fluent in English and Chinese, her customer service staff members say a typical day begins at about 7 a.m. - when they start answeringfrantic（發(fā)狂似的）texts - and lasts until 10 p.m. Jing Mommy's meal plans range from $2,030 to $3,390 (and, in our case at least, provided enough food for all of us!).

Huang said: "I feelfulfilled（感到滿足的）when women recover their health from my meals. I want women to enjoy their postpartum time. This is not a business to me but about education and explaining why zuo yue zi is important."

So does it work?

According toacupuncturist（針療醫(yī)師）Lia Andrews, author of "The Postpartum Recovery Program," too many new mothers rush back to their daily routines after birth. They expect that their weight, energy levels, mood andlibido（性欲）will miraculously bounce back without any assistance; they also believe it is normal for their bodies to feelwrecked（被毀壞）from childbearing. Some "modern mothers never fully recover from having children. Instead, they suffer from depression, lack of libido, weight gain,hormonal imbalances（激素失調(diào)）, inability to conceive more children, urinary incontinence and other complications," she writes in her book.

Anne CC Lee is apediatrician（兒科醫(yī)生）in the department of newborn medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital. Like me, she's an ABC - an American-born Chinese - and a mother of four. And, like me, she said she responded to emails throughlabor（在這里指分娩，而不是勞動(dòng)（也是一種勞動(dòng)！））, worked during what was supposed to be her maternity leave and repeatedly ignored relatives who tried to help her follow zuo yue zi.

Unlike in my case, though, Lee's mother was still around to help her through all four postpartums. She reveled in her mother's chicken soup, congee and child care - but passed on the pig trotters.

The food and the parental help "provided me with the much-needed rest and energy to be able to better care for my newborn and return to family and work stronger," Lee says. "My parents are Westernized and liberal with the interpretation of zuo yue zi, and fortunately allowed air conditioning - as long as it wasn't blowing directly on the baby - showers and surfing the Internet."

Lee points out that Eastern and Western cultures share common customs in the postpartum period - promoting nutrition, hydration and rest, and avoiding infectious exposures. "Many zuo yue zi traditions are beneficial for the mother and newborn, such as eating protein-rich foods, avoidingstrenuous（劇烈的）physical activity and restricting visitors to allowrecuperation（恢復(fù)）and reduce risk for infections," she says.

A lot is the same. And a lot is common sense.

"On the other hand, some traditions may have less clear benefit or even potential harm. Herbal supplements are not regulated by theFDA食品及藥物管理局, and there is little information on their active ingredients, transfer into breast milk or effects on breast-feeding infants. Thus, it may be best totailor·定制、量身定做；裁縫the postpartum experience for the individual, considering a mother's particular needs and circumstances, while balancing the potential benefits and potential risks of the practices."

By standards of traditional Chinese medicine, I probably didn't eat enough pork liver toreplenish（補(bǔ)充、再裝滿）the blood lost during childbirth, pork kidney to heal back pain and pig feet to increase my milk supply.

By reading Andrews's book, I also discovered that I had ignored a key piece of equipment for zuo yue zi that had come in the Jing Mommy box: a roll ofstretchy（有彈性的）cloth for a new mother to wrap around herabdomen（腹部）. Had I known that thebinding（捆、包扎）was supposed to minimize organ prolapse, improve my waistline and return my internal organs to the correct position, I would have tried it. "Withoutbinding, new mothers can be left with a permanent**puffy pouch指肚子上"多余"的肉**,"（如果不用束縛帶，媽媽將會(huì)留下一肚子的贅肉）Andrews writes.

Looking back, my husband and Iregretnot having given zuo yue zi a chance with our other children.（回憶過(guò)去，我丈夫和我很后悔生其他孩子的時(shí)候沒(méi)有坐月子）Even though most women do not have the luxury of staying in bed for a month, we can at least try to rest and eat well. The prepared zuo yue zi meals alone made this postpartum experience much more enjoyable and less stressful than the previous ones. Not having to argue about who was going to prepare a meal or what to eat (fast food being the usualdefault（默認(rèn)的選擇）) allowed us to focus on the health and well-being of everyone in the family. Zuo yue zi removed theexhaustion（筋疲力盡）, anger andresentment（氣憤）that had clouded my ability to bond properly in those critical first months of postpartum.

Now three to four months after giving birth, I can more clearly see the long-term benefits. When my baby cries or needs a diaper changed, I am not so exhausted that I'd rather have my husband handle her care. And while I can't prove that zuo yue zi is the cause, this newborn seems to have the most wonderfuldisposition（性情）: infectiously joyful. Best of all, as a relaxed, unstressed mother, I finally had the luxury of making my baby laugh first - instead ofceding（放棄、讓給）that delight to my husband.

單詞：

enforce 強(qiáng)制實(shí)施、強(qiáng)迫

ridicule 嘲笑

controversial 有爭(zhēng)議

interpret 解釋、理解、演繹；做口譯

inconsistent 不一致的、反常的

adversely 不利的

adherents 擁護(hù)者

traumatized 受傷的

premature 過(guò)早的

affluent 富裕的

entree 主菜（美）；小菜（英）

shriveled 枯萎

anti-inflammation 消炎

detoxification 解毒

rejuvenation 變得年輕（"the action or process of making someone or something look or feel better, younger, or more vital"）

frantic 發(fā)狂似的

libido 性欲

wrecked 被毀壞

strenuous 劇烈的

recuperation 恢復(fù)

tailor 定制、量身定做；裁縫

replenish 補(bǔ)充、再裝滿

stretchy 有彈性的

default 默認(rèn)的選擇

exhaustion 精疲力盡

resentment 氣憤

disposition 性情

cede 放棄、讓給

表達(dá)法：

born and raised in 在某地方生長(zhǎng)的

on the plus side 好的方面

a month's worth 一個(gè)月的量

與文章內(nèi)容相關(guān)：

heatstroke 中暑

muscular and cardiovascular health 肌肉與心血管系統(tǒng)的健康

postpartum depression 產(chǎn)后抑郁癥

high cholesterol and high blood glucose 膽固醇與血糖高

homebound （由于年老或疾病而）困居家中的；回家的

nit 虱子卵

lather 泡沫；弄起泡沫

head-lice 虱子

hemorrhoids 痔瘡

uterine prolapse 子宮脫垂

urinary incontinence 小便失禁

congee 粥

internal organs 內(nèi)臟

pig trotters 豬蹄

bass 鱸魚（b?s）；低音、低音提琴、低音電吉他（be?s）

goji 枸杞

acupuncturist 針療醫(yī)師

hormonal imbalances 激素失調(diào)

pediatrician 兒科醫(yī)生

labor 在這里指分娩，而不是勞動(dòng)（也是一種勞動(dòng)！）

FDA (Food and Drug Administration) 食品及藥物管理局