When Nur Amira Izani checked out of hospital after delivering her first child she immediately began a traditional Malay confinement regime, living on a strict diet, face streaked with turmeric paste and squeezed into a tight bodywrap for 44 days.

"I do this because I want to remain in good health, and more importantly, this will help me regain my pre-pregnancy figure faster," Nur Amira, 30, said breathlessly as her ' bidan ' or traditional midwife tightly wound a 10-metre-long white cloth around her waist and thighs.

In both ethnic Malay and Chinese societies here the confinement month, or " berpantang " in Malay, remains as important in the modern world as it was in ages past.

While the Malays resort to traditional massages and bodywraps to rid themselves of toxins and baby-fat, the Chinese drink lots of wine to recover from childbirth.

"The woman should remain confined, literally, and follow a strict diet," ethnic Chinese Lilian Lim, 39, mother of ten-week old twins told AFP .

"Chicken is good, especially cooked in wine or sesame oil. Pig's trotters in vinegar are also supposed to be good, but luckily I wasn't fed that. I think it's supposed to tighten up your internal organs after all that pushing.

"You must also avoid all wind, fans and air conditioning and avoid moving about. Ideally, you should just lie in bed," she said.

Confinement ladies

The Chinese use " pui yuit " or confinement ladies, who keep the mother company for a month, cook her food according to Chinese customs and take care of the newborn baby.

They are so popular that professional agencies have flourished, with confinement ladies costing up to RM2,500 for the month's service, Lilian said.

"You cannot wash your body or hair during the month, and must avoid contact with cold water. It's important to keep warm. You shouldn't eat 'cooling' types of food," she said.

These include melons and most vegetables. This is to "restore the balance upset by the birth," Nur Amira said, adding that "Malays are also fixated with avoiding the types of food that can cause wind.

"The list of such food seems endless, from spinach to sweet potato to coconut milk," she complained.

These new mums are barred from housework to prevent aches and pains in old age, and those who fail to follow the special diet or dare to do housework are considered "a bit of a fool".

Meanwhile, Malay mums must not read books or surf the Internet, supposedly to prevent eye problems in old age.

Many put themselves in the hands of a trusted " bidan ", who massages away their aches and pains, sometimes using a heated smooth stone on parts of the body to eliminate trapped wind and toxins.

Some resort to "roasting" or "beranggang" by standing over a small fire piled high with leaves.

"It's just like a sauna, the aim is to make you sweat it all out," said ' bidan ' Enon Abdul Majid.

Enon, who has been helping Malay women recover from childbirth for 14 years, claims the process "can help you lose a kilogram a day. It also helps to tighten the vagina," she enthuses.

Getting the figure back

Afterwards, Nur Amira is bathed with water made more "heating" by adding herbs or flower petals.

She is then slathered with a yellowish paste of ginger, turmeric, rice flour, vinegar, lime and chalk to "help tighten the figure back to what it was and to expel wind, of course," Enon said.

Enon then ties Nur Amira up tightly in her bodywrap "to firm up the flabby tummy." Nur Amira will likely remain in the bodywrap till the next day when Enon returns for another session.

A reddish paste made of herbs which Enon applies to Nur Amira's forehead "to prevent headaches and migraines in old age" provides the finishing touch.

Enon then helps Nur Amira dress warmly for the remainder of the day, with long sleeves, long pants, socks and house slippers before packing up and heading off to massage and "roast" another new mum.

"All this certainly makes me unattractive, but not that it matters as sex is taboo for the next six weeks," Nur Amira sighs.

"Many women today find that lack of help and the almost unrealistic demands of a confinement regime prevent them from following all the do's and don'ts," working mother-of-four Nora Hazmy said.

Common complaints over the methods used are that they are "messy" and time-consuming. The bodywrap is sometimes described as "making you look and feel like an Egyptian mummy and makes it difficult to move about or go to the bathroom."

"I think the confinement practices are mainly directed to the mother, but the avoidance of fresh fruit and vegetables may help prevent diarrhoea in a breast-fed baby," Nora said.

"And they say that avoiding food which can cause wind will help prevent colic in nursing babies too, and the protein-rich diet could improve the quality of breastmilk. So maybe there is something to all of this," she said.