After becoming a mother, there are often days when your body does not feel like your own. In particular, right after giving birth, when sweat pours down your body and you suddenly feel shivering chills, you may feel bewildered and alarmed. You might even lose sleep worrying whether this could be postpartum wind syndrome (sanhupung). The Donguibogam views a woman's body after childbirth with great care and warmth. It describes this state as similar to a house that has just hosted a major event, leaving its doors wide open while losing its vitality. Childbirth involves immense metabolism that mobilizes the entire body's energy, which vastly consumes qi and blood. It is as if all the savings in a piggy bank were spent at once, leaving the body's internal reserves empty.
When qi and blood become deficient like this, the doors of the body cannot close properly and remain open. As a result, sweat pores open and spontaneous sweating occurs, with sweat streaming out steadily. The text views this sweat not simply as a means of thermoregulation, but as precious body fluids and qi leaking out of the body. As qi escapes, the body gradually turns cold and reacts sensitively even to mild external cold qi, causing shivering chills. It follows the same principle as a draft blowing freely into a house with open doors.
The Donguibogam does not view these symptoms merely as heavy sweating. It diagnoses the condition as a deficiency pattern resulting from the exhaustion of qi and blood during childbirth, especially when a mother has lost substantial blood or experienced depleted energy from inadequate postpartum rest. In this state, yang qi becomes insufficient, weakening the body's ability to keep itself warm and fend off external cold qi. Consequently, fluctuating symptoms can appear, such as sweating heavily when going to bed at night, only to feel freezing cold around dawn. This is why our ancestors fed new mothers warm meals, kept them warmly protected, and ensured they had sufficient rest. A mother's body urgently needs time to recharge, close those open doors, and replenish itself from within. The text emphasizes that navigating this period well allows a woman to step forward into life as a healthy mother.
