Page 116 - EBOOK_Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing

encourages relaxation. Every two weeks during the last two months of

pregnancy, Javanese women drink half a glass of freshly-made coconut oil laced
with herbs, which is said to ease and speed up the delivery. Even today,
Indonesian women normally give birth in less than four hours as opposed to the
average eight to 16 for a Caucasian, but it is difficult to tell whether this is due to
physiology, jamu or massage, or a combination of all three.
The technique of post-natal massage is one of Indonesia’s secrets. Although
this knowledge has strayed across neighbouring borders, it remains the exclusive
property of the Indonesian-Malay community. What is known, however, is that
the mother regains her looks, health and strength within 30 to 40 days of the
baby’s arrival. Treatments are usually carried out by elderly, experienced
masseurs, who fully understand the concept of inner and outer beauty their

clients strive to achieve.
The post-natal Ibu pijat begins work in the early morning when her client
washes in hot, instead of cold, water. While the mother is bathing, the masseuse
prepares charcoal in a pot burner. Following her bath, the mother spends 15
minutes standing over the burning charcoal to warm her body and tighten the
vaginal muscles. Next comes a herbal oil body massage to restore muscle tone.
This is followed by pulling the mother’s hair back tightly to remove wind and
relieve migraines or headaches. At this stage, a poultice is applied to the

stomach. Cajuput oil, juice of the thin-skinned lime and kapur sirih — a mixture
of lime powder and betel leaves—are mixed with tapel powder to form a paste.
This cleans out any blood remaining in the womb, firms the muscles and shrinks
the stomach. Such precautions counteract stomach ache and help the mother
regain her figure.
If the birth was normal the Ibu pijat pushes up the womb to prevent the
woman from becoming pregnant again too easily. Finally the binding is put in
place. Before modern medicine developed ways of stitching tears in the vaginal
opening following delivery, the skin was pulled together and bound, enabling it
to heal more quickly, provided the mother didn’t move her legs too far apart and
cause the skin to tear again.

The binding, bengkung in Javanese, resembles an adult form of swaddling,
except it is wound from the hips to the rib cage. It is made of hard, cotton cloth
measuring anything from eight to 15 metres (25 feet to 45 feet) in length, and is
often bound in a ‘V’ shape over the stomach for extra strength. To achieve its
objective, the binding needs to be unbearably tight. The swaddling requires a
mother to sleep with her legs straight out in front of her and keep as still as
possible. Possibly the worst aspect if one lives in the tropics is being unable to