Nowadays it is costly to employ someone to help to cook and to take care of baby during confinement period. Not everybody can afford it. Some of my friends have no one to help and have to do everything by themselves. They were supposed to rest and recover but too bad they could not do so.
Recently my friend gave birth to her fourth child, a beautiful girl. She just shifted to a new place and could not find anybody to help her to cook Chinese confinement food. Someone recommended me to cook for her as she saw me always preparing lunch for church on Sunday.
I had no experience at all to prepare confinement meals. I was hesitating whether to take the challenge and do something I had never done before. Finally I decided to give myself a chance to try something new. This will widen my scope and experience. And it is good to keep my mind from getting old and inactive.
I started to ask the people around me to share their experiences. Besides this I managed to get hold of a good cookery book about confinement meals. I browsed through the whole book and selected some meals which I could manage to get the ingredients and cook. Some meals can be taken during the first week. Some can be taken everyday and some can be taken only after two weeks. I listed down few sets of meals to be taken at different times. To be sure of success I tried out beforehand some of the meals.
Every alternate day I went to market to get fresh "kampung chicken" and some vegetables. I also purchased some Chinese herbs like red dates, black dates and others. At night I started to boil the red dates drink for the next morning. During confinement period it is an important drink to replenish the blood loss.
Every morning I had to get ready the food before 10am. A friend would come and collect the food daily. I prepared food enough for her lunch and dinner. She ate not much ,half chicken for two meals. I gave her one vegetable dish and one meat dish together with the red dates drink in thermos flask.
In the process of cooking I learned new ways of cooking which I could use in future .
I think it is one way to cut cost and yet to enjoy a good confinement. The only thing is to find someone willing to help. After the first experience I look forward to help and bless someone again in future. All glory to God.
