Postpartum Sealing Ceremony/ Closing of the Bones (Baño y Cerrada con Rebozo)

Postpartum Sealing Ceremony/ Closing of the Bones is a very old tradition found in different places around the globe. The one I will share with you I learned from my maestra. A traditional midwife from Xalapa, Veracruz, Mx.

In Veracruz and in many part of Mexico this tradition is called Baño postparto y Cerrada con Rebozo. This two therapies are done in one session during la “cuarentena”. La cuarentena that is far from the translation in English as quarentine is a the postpartum period after the baby is born till 40 days after the delivery.

This sacred time of the cuarentena was jealously protected by the midwife and the closes female family members of the postpartum new mother or how we called in Mexico “mujer recién parida”.

The cuarentena care is very well known in all the territory of what today is known as Mexico but the baño postpartum and cerrada con rebozo (postpartum herbal bath and closing of the bones)are very traditional still nowadays in the Mesoamerican area of Mexico. That is from the center of the country to the south of it.

Every indigenous group in the Mesoamerican territory has their own way to do it but most of them share the same principles: bring warm to the postpartum body of the new mother, help her body, mind, and spirit enter the motherhood realm, help the uterus and other abdominal organs to find their right place, and help the bones (mostly in the hips) to start and continue the process of closing and returning to their place.

In the begging in Mesoamerica the baño postparto was done in the temazcalli (temazcal) and there was a specific deidity protector of this process. The cerrada was done also inside the temazcalli. Today temazcales are not any more that common or accessible everywhere that’s the reason why now we do baño de hierbas (herbal bath) and vaginal steaming.

The first step in this process is to do a postpartum sobada that will help the body of the postpartum mother remove all excess of water and toxins accumulated in the body tissue during pregnancy, after this she will get the vaginal steaming and herbal bath, she will rest and sweat, and finally she will get the cerrada con rebozo (closing of the bones).

In some places in Mexico they use only one rebozo, in other ones they use 5, and in other they use 7 rebozos to do the cerrada (closing of the bones). Usually there is a manteada (done with the rebozo) but before midwives used to use a manta or sheet to do this process.

After the woman gets this session she feels renovated, relaxed, embodied, and centered.

My maestra partera used to said a postpartum woman needs 2 sessions likes this during the cuarentena. But now is more common have only one. Also, traditionally this was done only during the first 40 days after delivery. But now we know there are great outcomes having this done in any period after having a baby. This can be days or months after the cuarentena or even years after the delivery of the baby.

For people like us, Mexican, direct descendants of this traditions through our indigenous roots this is a present from “nuestras abuelitas” a present from our females ancestors who did this to all the women before us and we hope we can continue doing this to the women of future generations.

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