＝my view＝
i think who just strictly follow the "restriction" - "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." is not quite understand the meaning of the Zuo Ye Zhi.
I think the most important part for Zuo Ye Zhi is balance. Woman should take good enough relax after birth. e.g. When you got really hot, we still can use the air conditioner.
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朗读内容
I tried the Chinese practice of ‘sitting the month’ after childbirth
By Leslie Hsu Oh
When my aunt learned I was pregnant with my fourth child, she begged me to respect the Chinese tradition of zuo yue zi, or “sitting the month.” 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 mother enforces zuo yue zi. But my mother died when I turned 21, and I was raised by a father who championed all things Chinese but ridiculed 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 somewhat controversial because the advice to take a month’s rest can be interpreted 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, 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 of heatstroke 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 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 found inconsistent results. On the plus side 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 for muscular and cardiovascular health and increased postpartum depression.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/i-tried-the-chinese-practice-of-sitting-the-month-after-childbirth/2017/01/06/54517ee0-ad0b-11e6-a31b-4b6397e625d0_story.html
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ridiculed
v.
嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 )
controversial
英 [ˌkɒntrəˈvɜ:ʃl] 美 [ˌkɑ:ntrəˈvɜ:rʃl]
adj.
有争议的，引起争议的，被争论的;好争论的
stem from
英 [stem frɔm] 美 [stɛm frʌm]
词典
出于;来自， 起源于， 由…造成
fuel
英 [ˈfju:əl] 美 [ˈfjuəl]
n.
燃料;（为身体提供能量的）食物;（维持、增加感情的）刺激物;竞选提神（或兴奋）剂（一种健怡可乐，饮用后能使人精力充沛地从事竞选活动）
vt.
给…加燃料，给…加油;激起
vi.
补充燃料
muscular
英 [ˈmʌskjələ(r)] 美 [ˈmʌskjəlɚ]
adj.
肌肉的;壮健的，肌肉发达的，强壮的
cardiovascular
英 [ˌkɑ:diəʊˈvæskjələ(r)] 美 [ˌkɑ:rdioʊˈvæskjələ(r)]
adj.
心血管的
postpartum
英 [ˌpəʊst'pɑ:təm] 美 [ˌpoʊst'pɑ:təm]
adj.
产后的
