Examines the dietary restrictions that apply to Vietnamese and Vietnamese-Chinese women following delivery. Study participants were 15 ethnic Vietnamese and 25 Vietnamese-Chinese women between the ages of 19 and 49 who had arrived in Australia as refugees between 1978 and 1979. Traditional Vietnamese medicine combines indigenous folk medicine, emphasizing the role of spirits, with Chinese medicine, emphasizing polar opposites. An imbalance between opposites, expressed as hot and cold, causes illnesses, but foods, also classified as either hot or cold, can be eaten to correct these imbalances. After childbirth, women have an excess of cold and therefore must be kept warm and fed hot foods. Other behavioral customs aim also to restore heat and protect the new mother and infant against external sources of cold and wind. Particular food combinations are thought to be most effective in restoring balance, including pork and chicken with ginger, which promotes warmth, and soup with cabbage, which increases milk supply. Among the foods that are proscribed are raw fruits and vegetables, sour or astringent foods, and deep-fried and fatty foods. Observance of postpartum food rituals provided these Vietnamese and Vietnamese-Chinese refugee women an important cultural bridge as they entered motherhood in a new environment.
