来源: 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
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."
beg 恳求、乞讨
sitting the month 在这里指"坐月子"
Traced back to 追溯到
restriction n. 限制
当我的阿姨知道我怀了第四个孩子时，她恳求我尊重中国传统的坐月子或“坐月”。 追溯到早在960年，坐月子是一种在出生后实施的饮食和生活方式的限制，以恢复女人的“破碎的身体”。
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.
enforce 强制实施、强迫
ridicule 嘲笑
championed 倡导
brush teeth 刷牙
传统上，你的母亲执行坐月子。 但我母亲于21岁时去世，我是一位支持中国人的父亲抚养的，但嘲笑他听到的坐月子限制：不要洗头。 不要淋浴。 不要刷牙。 不要携带你的新生婴儿，爬楼梯，流泪，喝水或吃冷食物。 不要做爱，使用空调，离开家，阅读，看电视或上网。
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.
controversial 有争议
interpret 解释、理解、演绎；做口译
chi 气
stem from 源于
fluid 液体
坐月子有点争议，因为休息一个月的建议可以被广泛解读。 例如，一个人不应该洗头发，淋浴，刷牙，使用空调或离开家的想法都源于分娩带来大量流体和失血的信念。 根据中医的说法，血液中携带着你的“生命力”，它激发了身体的所有功能。 当你失血时，你会失去气，这会导致你的身体进入阴（冷）状态。 当阴（冷）和阳（热）失衡时，你的身体会遭受身体失调。
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.
heatstroke 中暑
extreme 极端
blow 吹
一些人，比如去年因中暑死亡的中国女性，就将这些限制放在了极限。 其他人则更放松，只要冷空气不直接吹到他们身上就可以淋浴或使用空调。
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.
born and raised in 在某地方生长的
graduate 毕业生
resist 抵抗
inconsistent 不一致的、反常的
on the plus side 好的方面
bonding 结合
muscular and cardiovascular health 肌肉与心血管系统的健康
postpartum depression 产后抑郁症
在美国出生并长大，毕业于哈佛大学T.H. 陈公共卫生学院，我忍不住检查坐月子的证据 - 我发现了不一致的结果。 另一方面，调查结果显示，长期的恢复期改善了母亲的健康相关生活质量，并导致了与她的孩子更好的结合。 但2014年的一项中国女性研究发现，限制一个月的体力活动对肌肉和心血管健康以及产后抑郁增加都不利。
Another study found that while sitting the month helped some women return to their pre-pregnancy weight, it also seemed to cause high cholesterol and high blood glucose and created feelings of "extreme sadness" from being homebound.
high cholesterol and high blood glucose 胆固醇与血糖高
homebound （由于年老或疾病而）困居家中的；回家的
另一项研究发现，虽然坐在这个月帮助一些女性恢复到怀孕前的体重，但它似乎也会导致高胆固醇和高血糖，并因为家中感染而产生“极度悲伤”的感觉。
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.
Despite the need for more studies to determine whether zuo yue zi adversely affects maternal physical and psychological health or, as its adherents 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.
adherents 拥护者
migrant 移民
determine vt. 决定
adversely adv. 不利地
maternal adj. 母系的
rough adj. 粗糙的
postpartum adj. 产后的
关于科学家似乎唯一同意的是，坐月子在东亚和东南亚国家以及这些国家的移民中很受欢迎，医护人员应该了解坐月子，以便为那些正在实践这些文化信仰的人提供适当的建议。
尽管需要更多的研究来确定坐月子是否对孕妇的身体和心理健康产生不利影响，或者如其信徒所认为的，在晚年防止疾病，我愿意尝试。 我已经有过三次粗糙的产后体验，只有我的丈夫帮助过我 - 每次只有两周 - 烹饪，清洁和儿童保健。 我从来没有躺在床上。
I'm still somewhat traumatized 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 a nit comb through our older daughter's long tangled hair, tears running down my face as my husband lathered up head-lice shampoo for our son and me.
traumatized 受伤的
nit 虱子卵
lather 泡沫；弄起泡沫
head-lice 虱子
crib 婴儿床
我第三次产后的经历对我仍然有点伤害：当我们的房子处于不同阶段，当我们的新生儿在她的婴儿床中哭泣时，我们正在装箱进行计划外行动，我通过我们的大女儿长长的纠结头发， 我的丈夫为我们的儿子和我铺上了头虱洗发水。
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 of hemorrhoids, uterine prolapse, urinary incontinence, weight gain, premature aging and body aches.
hemorrhoids 痔疮
uterine prolapse 子宫脱垂
urinary incontinence 小便失禁
premature 过早的
对于我的第四个孩子，我希望，据说台湾第一位成为中医医师的淑琪称为“黄金机会”，这是什么原因。
庄认为，每次产后恢复正常对女性健康至关重要。 有一次希望能帮助修复先前怀孕后造成的损伤，并将我从未来的痔疮，子宫脱垂，尿失禁，体重增加，早衰和身体酸痛中拯救出来。
I figured there must be a reason that affluent 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 3,000 (plus food and transportation expenses) to hire a nanny for 30 days or 4,000 to have a month's worth of special postpartum meals delivered to their home.
affluent 富裕的
a month's worth 一个月的量
我认为，中国的富裕女性肯定会有一个理由，愿意在专门研究坐月子的豪华中心上花费27,000美元。 在美国，一些朋友花了大约3,000（加上食物和运输费用）雇佣保姆30天或4000，以便将一个月的特价产后餐送到他们的家中。
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, egg), lunch (fish soup, entree made from "yang" foods such as ginseng, vegetables and rice), dinner (a specialized soup of internal organs such as pig trotters 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.
congee 粥
entree 主菜（美）；小菜（英）
internal organs 内脏
pig trotters 猪蹄
所以，当我的第四个孩子，一个女孩出生时，我的阿姨赐予了我加州服务的Jing Mommy 30天的膳食，该服务承诺“为产后恢复提供美味和方便的膳食”。
在我回到新生儿回家的第二天，一个足够让我3岁的孩子能够像一个玩具屋一样享受的盒子。 这个94磅的盒子里装有7个冷冻袋，当天每天都有一个。 每餐提供早餐（粥，鸡蛋），午餐（鱼汤，由人参，蔬菜和米饭等“阳”食物制成的主菜），晚餐（猪蹄等内脏器官专用汤或 肝，芝麻油汤，蔬菜，米饭），两种甜品和草药饮料。 对我们所有人来说都足够了; 我们只好微波吃饭。
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 soup with red dates and gojis. . . . " She disappeared into her kitchen and returned with a shriveled-up red berry about the size of a raisin. "Goji," she said with respect. "Anti-aging, anti-inflammation." 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."
bass 鲈鱼（bæs）；低音、低音提琴、低音电吉他（beɪs）
goji 枸杞
shriveled 枯萎
anti-inflammation 消炎
我跳上Skype向我的阿姨展示了我每周会收到的慷慨传播。 “很幸运，猪脚对关节和牛奶生产非常有利，”她用中文说道，透过摄像头窥视各种食物。 因为英文标签每天都读相同的东西 - 例如“午餐鱼汤” - 我让她翻译中文标签。 “带蘑菇的低音汤，带红枣和gojis的低音汤......”她消失在她的厨房里，回到葡萄干大小的干红浆果。 “枸杞，”她尊敬地说。 “抗衰老，抗炎。” 在她的拇指和食指之间，她举行了关于葡萄大小的红色约会。 “我把它放在所有的汤里，保护肝脏。”
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 of detoxification(Week 1), repairing (Week 2) and rejuvenation (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 answering frantic texts - and lasts until 10 p.m. Jing Mommy's meal plans range from 3,390 (and, in our case at least, provided enough food for all of us!).
detoxification 解毒
rejuvenation 变得年轻（"the action or process of making someone or something look or feel better, younger, or more vital"）
frantic 发狂似的
Jing Mommy的首席执行官兼联合创始人Nicole Huang举办免费品尝派对和研讨会。 虽然她的膳食基于壮族的排毒规则（第1周），修复（第2周）和恢复活力（第3周和第4周），黄通过观察她的顾客的反应来修改它们。 她的厨师每天早上开始在专业厨房准备5餐，并在中午之前将它们送到当地妈妈手中。 她的客户服务人员能说流利的英语和中文，他说典型的一天开始时间是早上7点左右 - 当他们开始回答疯狂的文本时 - 一直持续到下午10点。 姜妈妈的膳食计划范围从3,390（至少在我们的情况下，为我们所有人提供了足够的食物！）。
Huang said: "I feel fulfilled 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."
fulfilled 感到满足的
黄女士说：“当女性从吃饭中恢复健康时，我感到很满足，我希望女性享受他们的产后时间，这对我来说不是一件生意，而是关于教育和解释为什么坐月子很重要。
So does it work?
According to acupuncturist 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 and libido will miraculously bounce back without any assistance; they also believe it is normal for their bodies to feel wrecked from childbearing. Some "modern mothers never fully recover from having children. Instead, they suffer from depression, lack of libido, weight gain, hormonal imbalances, inability to conceive more children, urinary incontinence and other complications," she writes in her book.
acupuncturist 针疗医师
libido 性欲
wrecked 被毁坏
hormonal imbalances 激素失调
它是如何工作的？
根据“产后恢复计划”的作者，针灸师Lia Andrews的说法，很多新妈妈在出生后重新回到日常生活中。 他们希望自己的体重，精力水平，情绪和性欲会在没有任何帮助的情况下奇迹般地反弹回来; 他们也认为，他们的身体感到生育受到破坏是正常的。 她在书中写道，一些“现代母亲从未完全从患有子女中恢复过来，而是患有抑郁症，性欲缺乏，体重增加，荷尔蒙失衡，无法怀孕的孩子，尿失禁和其他并发症。
Anne CC Lee is a pediatrician 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 through labor, worked during what was supposed to be her maternity leave and repeatedly ignored relatives who tried to help her follow zuo yue zi.
pediatrician 儿科医生
labor 在这里指分娩，而不是劳动（也是一种劳动！）
Anne CC Lee是哈佛医学院教学医院布莱根妇女医院新生儿科的儿科医生。 和我一样，她是美国广播公司 - 一个美国出生的中国人，也是一位四岁的母亲。 而且，就像我一样，她说她通过劳动回复了电子邮件，在假期休假期间工作过，一再忽视那些试图帮助她跟随坐月子的亲戚。
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, avoiding strenuous physical activity and restricting visitors to allow recuperationand reduce risk for infections," she says.
strenuous 剧烈的
recuperation 恢复
然而，与我的情况不同，李的母亲仍然在帮助她完成所有四次产后。 她喜欢母亲的鸡汤，粥和儿童保育，但却传递给猪蹄。
食物和父母的帮助“为我提供了急需的休息和精力，以便能够更好地照顾我的新生儿并返回家庭并加强工作，”Lee说。 “我的父母是西化的，对坐月子的解释是自由的，幸运的是允许空调 - 只要它不直接吹在婴儿淋浴器上并上网。”
李指出，东西方文化在产后阶段有共同的习俗 - 促进营养，保湿和休息，并避免传染性接触。 “许多坐月子的传统对母亲和新生儿有益，例如吃富含蛋白质的食物，避免剧烈的体力活动，并限制游客恢复身体并减少感染风险，”她说。
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 the FDA, and there is little information on their active ingredients, transfer into breast milk or effects on breast-feeding infants. Thus, it may be best to tailor 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."
FDA (Food and Drug Administration) 食品及药物管理局
tailor 定制、量身定做；裁缝
很多都是一样的。 很多是常识。
“另一方面，一些传统可能没有那么明确的好处，甚至是潜在的危害，中草药补充剂不受FDA管理，关于其有效成分，转移到母乳中或对母乳喂养婴儿的影响等信息很少。 ，考虑到母亲的特殊需要和情况，平衡个体的产后体验可能是最好的，同时平衡这些实践的潜在利益和潜在风险。“
By standards of traditional Chinese medicine, I probably didn't eat enough pork liver to replenish the blood lost during childbirth, pork kidney to heal back pain and pig feet to increase my milk supply.
replenish 补充、再装满
按照中医的标准，我可能没有吃足够的猪肝来补充分娩时失去的血液，猪肾来治疗背痛和猪脚，以增加我的牛奶供应量。
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 of stretchycloth for a new mother to wrap around her abdomen. Had I known that the bindingwas supposed to minimize organ prolapse, improve my waistline and return my internal organs to the correct position, I would have tried it. "Without binding, new mothers can be left with a permanentpuffy pouch," Andrews writes.
stretchy 有弹性的
abdomen 腹部
bind 捆、包扎
puffy pouch 在这里只肚子上"多余"的肉
通过阅读安德鲁斯的书，我也发现，我忽略了一个关于来自京妈咪盒子的坐月子的关键设备：一卷弹力布，让新妈妈环绕着她的腹部。 如果我知道绑定应该尽量减少器官脱垂，改善我的腰围并将我的内部器官恢复到正确的位置，我会尝试它。 “没有约束力，新妈妈可以留下一个永久性的袋子，”安德鲁斯写道。
Looking back, my husband and I regret not having given zuo yue zi a chance with our other children. 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 usual default) allowed us to focus on the health and well-being of everyone in the family. Zuo yue zi removed the exhaustion, anger and resentment that had clouded my ability to bond properly in those critical first months of postpartum.
default 默认的选择
exhaustion 精疲力尽
resentment 气愤
回想起来，我和老公很遗憾没有给坐月子一个机会给我们的其他孩子。 尽管大多数女性没有奢侈的睡觉一个月，但我们至少可以尝试休息和吃好。 单独准备的坐月子餐，使得这种产后体验比以前更令人愉快，压力更小。 无需争论谁准备吃饭或吃什么（快餐是常见的违约），使我们能够专注于家人每个人的健康和幸福。坐月子消除了疲惫，愤怒和怨恨，这使我在产后几个关键的几个月里能够正确地结合在一起。
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 wonderful disposition: infectiously joyful. Best of all, as a relaxed, unstressed mother, I finally had the luxury of making my baby laugh first - instead of ceding that delight to my husband.
disposition 性情
cede 放弃、让给
现在分娩后三到四个月，我可以更清楚地看到长期的好处。 当我的宝宝哭泣或需要换尿布时，我并没有精疲力尽，我宁愿让我的丈夫处理她的照顾。 虽然我无法证明坐月子是事业，但这个新生儿似乎拥有最美妙的性格：感染性的快乐。 最重要的是，作为一个轻松，不重要的母亲，我终于享受到了让宝宝第一笑的豪华 - 而不是让我的丈夫感到高兴。