My first exposure to omugwo was when my friend Onyinye’s mum had their last born. We were in Jss 3 then and every morning she would come and narrate all the wonderful things her mum was being pampered with. One of them was the famous ‘mmiri ogwu’ a specially prepared broth filled with lots of fish, meat and herbs. She even brought some to school, which we all shared. I couldn’t wait for my turn.
When I got home from the hospital after ada’s birth, my wonderful neighbours declared they would take care of me… I was estatic, I would receive community omugwo 💃💃💃💃(is God not great?). Morning came and after watching her bath baby, it was my turn. OK ooo.. so auntie will bath me… chai uwa arila nma (such good fortune) I thought till I got to the bathroom and saw bucket filled with piping HOT WATER. Ewoo. . Is it me that uses hot water to bath only during harmattan season that was going to bath with this mmiri oku eji egbu mbe(water hot enough to kill a tortise)? Hee, I began to have second thought’s about this bath oh. I explained to auntie and she assured me that the water would be diluted but only after my massage?
“Ehn.. auntie massage kwa” I blurted out.. yes ooo.. my pupils began to dilate as she explained the process. Number 1, she would massage my belly with hot water to heat up the womb and allow the blood flow freely and also burn the fat in my tummy thus contribute to getting back my flat tummy. Brethren I couldn’t argue. There was neither evidence supporting or refuting this practice in Agboola or ten teachers, considering aunty had kids she had experience on her side. So I began to negotiate (who doesn’t want flat tummy after delivery abi who wants congealed blood in her womb), i thought, all these belts that emit steam being advertised were like advanced tech of what she was describing. We agreed that the water wouldn’t be scalding hot and that she would stop when it started paining me.
Then she said I would also have to seat on the hot towel… SAY WHAT!!, is like hanty had forgotten that the walls of jerico had been repaired.. Noooo, Chukwu ama n kwe ( God forbid).. I categorically refused. She explained that it helped quicken healing and tightening of the hoohaa. I just told her that my doctor (I knew my own report wouldn’t hold sway) permitted me to only take sitz baths.. end of discussion..
So.. the million dollar question becomes this.. are all these rituals necessary?
For starters, applying hot(scalding) water to a healing wound in the belief that it aids healing is soo wrong. It actually does the opposite. That said, we can all safely conclude that hoohaa hot water massage is out of the question, so is belly massage in a post-caesarean delivery. As for vaginal births, I can only advise you to do what you are comfortable with when it comes to belly massage (I have seen mothers with flat tummy who didn’t have to undergo such torture).
Secondly.. the sitz bath controversy. After delivery, I received all kinds of advice centred around these baths. A lot of people believe a sitz bath should be piping hot with dettol or salt added and the patient sitting over the bucket while the steam does the job. I think we all have ‘I need to know’ to blame for that. Others believe you just have to dip your bum in the (again piping) hot water several times and the job is done. Again this train of thought is wrong. So what is a proper sitz bath and why is it important? In order not to make this post unusually long, sitz baths are explained here.
So please enjoy your omugwo and don’t let anybody torture you.
Cheers
youngmedicmum 