4.7.2 Mother Roasting – “Yu Kam” or “Yu Fai”
After delivery,
the women were guided to lie down on the bamboo bed which was prepared as a hot bed by starting a contained fire under the bed.
This is traditional child birth ritual or practice known as the hot bed – “Yu Kam” or “Yu Fai” which literally means “on fire”.
Mothers put salt on the fire and guided the postpartum women to lie on the hot bed. Before staying on top of the fire (“yu kam” or “yu fai”),
another ritual is conducted in which the water taken from a traditional healer is blown at to the women and a black and red cotton is tied to the wrist, ankle and neck by the elderly in order to ward off bad spirits. Then, the women are told to stay on the fire. During the hot bed ritual, the women had to take hot baths, and drink hot water between one to two weeks.
The reason for the hot bed was to strengthen the health of the women and accelerate the contraction of the uterus.
“According to the ritual practice, the postpartum women had to sit on the banana leaf with salt for about 40 minutes in order for wounds to get heal quickly.
After that, the women had to take a hot bath with herbal medicines before staying on the hot fire, drink about four pots of hot herbal medicine mixed with water, and also, take hot baths early in the morning without cleaning the skin for two weeks.”
(Mother, 50 years old)