In ancient times, women usually had home births, so their yuezi (or one month) was spent at home too.

According to Chinese medicine, a new mother who does not rest may suffer serious after-effects, such as chronic waist-pains.

Family members, therefore, usually didn't allow women to do many household chores and their mothers or their husbands' mothers would help take care of their babies while their husbands were away working.

The busy schedules of modern couples in Shanghai tend to preclude the possibility of taking time out for yuezi. "Many successful white collar workers and business people are reluctant to trouble their parents with the task of looking after a newborn; for others, their parents are not in Shanghai," said doctor Cao Yanan from Ruidong Hospital (Ruijin Hospital Pudong Branch). "Even if their parents come, accommodation problems will arise."

So wives here tend to take responsibility for care of themselves and their babies, while husbands, if spared from work, help out.

"Experienced couples might deal with that quite well, but many of them are inexperienced," said doctor Cao, who used to be a senior nurse of obstetrics in Ruijin Hospital.

Some community services centres in Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu Province have therefore launched programmes to train baby-sitters especially for the period of yuezi.

"Our hospital, inspired by this, is launching a Yuezi Hospital which will take advantage of our personnel and technical resources," Cao said.

Yuezi Hospital

In Shanghai hospitals, people can stay in wards for at most 14 days because of limited numbers of sickbeds. "But on average mothers can stay in our hospital for one month, after giving birth in another hospital," Cao said. The obstetrics department has not yet opened in the hospital.

During this period of time, doctors and nurses will take care of nutrition for the mothers and help them keep fit; doctors will also do regular medical check-ups of the breasts which are prone to problems following childbirth. In the meantime, mothers can have resident nurses take care of their babies, including bathing and feeding them and changing their nappies.

Medical examinations of both mothers and babies will be carried out twice a week by specialized doctors.

"For a number of reasons, doctors increasingly employ caesarean section, cutting into the abdomen to facilitate the birth," Cao said.

"This can relieve pain during birth, but if not treated and nursed properly after the birth, might cause serious health problems later."

A caesarean section requires special attention afterwards to ensure the incision heals; also to make sure the milk is normal, and there is no abnormal bleeding - some bleeding or lyma, a kind of natural bleeding from the womb after birth, is normal.

"All these factors are important for mothers to recover quickly and well after giving birth," she said.

Resident pediatricians will observe the growth of babies and treat them in time if anything happens. Dealing with illness in a newborn can be difficult for young couples, who are not experienced with babies.

Cost of care

Ruidong Hospital, a branch of Ruijin Hospital in Puxi, is more expensive because it is a Sino-Japanese hospital equipped with medical facilities of a very high standard.

In Ruidong Hospital, wards are usually suites of apartments with en suite toilets, two beds, wardrobes and some entertainment facilities such as colour TV sets.

"The rate for new mothers is 500 yuan ($60) per room per night. This includes nursing for babies and mothers, since they usually stay longer than other patients," said Cao. Food costs extra.

Ruidong Hospital is located near Pudong's Central Park, at the foot of Yangpu Bridge. For those without independent transport, buses from Ruijin Hospital on West Shanghai's Ruijin Er Road leave for the Pudong hospital at 7:45 am, 10:00 am and 1:00 pm every day beside Building 6 and return from the Pudong hospital at 9:15 am, 12:10 pm and 4:30 pm.