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173357 https://hdl.handle.net/10776/11451 2017-03-16 eng Chou, Cecilia Gleason, Kevin M. Arizona State University. School of Life Sciences. Center for Biology and Society. Embryo Project Encyclopedia. Arizona Board of Regents open access http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ In 1978 Social Science and Medicine published Barbara L.K. Pillsbury's article, 'Doing the Month': Confinement and Convalescence of Chinese Women After Childbirth, which summarized the results of Pillsbury's study on Chinese childbirth customs. Pillsbury, a professor of cultural anthropology at San Diego State University in San Diego, California, conducted over eighty interviews with people in Taiwan and China, including civilians, herbalists, and physicians over a four-month period in 1975. She aimed to highlight how a traditional Chinese post-childbirth custom known as zuo yuezi (sitting the month) persisted in modern Chinese society. The practice refers to the month-long period that women who have just given birth must spend resting, or in convalescence, adhering to a strict set of rules that address dietary needs and other cultural rituals. Pillsbury's Doing the Month provides a description and analysis of zuo yuezi (sitting the month), highlighting how traditional Chinese medicine persists in an increasingly westernized Chinese society, specifically in the case of childbirth and reproductive medicine. Literature Medicine, Chinese Traditional Chinese Medicine Postpartum Depression Postpartum Period Puerperium Postnatal care Anthropology Yin-Yang Convalescence Publications Pillsbury, Barbara L. K. "'Doing the Month': Confinement and Convalescence of Chinese Women After Childbirth" (1978), by Barbara L.K. Pillsbury