During Postpartum, you can bathe and shower with Ginger Bath Water to bring warmth to the body! Simply boil some ginger in water for 15 minutes for an easy Traditional Chinese Medicine remedy.
🔍 Quick Look: Ginger Water for Postpartum
- What is it? In Chinese culture, postpartum women bathe in hot Ginger Water after giving birth to bring warmth to the body. According to Chinese Traditional Medicine, the mom’s body has a lot of wind and needs to be counteracted with warmth to balance the body’s energy (known as qi).
- Why you’ll love this recipe: Simple and easy recipe backed by tradition (not science) for hundreds if not thousands of years.
- 🕒 Total Cook Time: 15 minutes
- 🔥 Cook Method: Boil ginger water and that’s it! If you have extra ginger, make some Fish and Papaya Soup to increase milk production.
- ⭐ Difficulty: Easy, all you have to do is add ginger and boil in the water.
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What is Ginger Bath Water?
One of the oldest Chinese traditions is to wash your hair and your body with warm ginger water after giving birth. Traditional Chinese families will have the mom bathe in ginger water (make sure it’s warm and not cold!) to repel the excess wind and coldness from giving birth. This also prevents cold, aches and future headaches. Ginger is the holy grail ingredient to keep the body warm and to replenish energy and stimulate circulation according to Traditional Chinese Medicine.
In Cantonese culture, postpartum women also eat the Pork Knuckle Ginger Stew and drink lots of warm soup like the Pork and Ginger Soup during the first month (also known as sitting the month). This is a time for the body to rest so eating warm and nutritious foods as well as bathing in ginger water is crucial for recovery.
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Key Ingredients
Here’s a look at what you need to make this Ginger Bath Water. Fresh ginger is all you need! We like to use the ginger skins so we can use the ginger meat for cooking. Especially during postpartum, there’s so many recipes that require eating ginger, the skins cannot be eaten we might as well bathe with it to avoid any waste.
No substitutions for fresh ginger! Using canned or processed ginger is not as fresh and also very expensive to use for bath water.
How to Make Ginger Bath Water
There’s not specific recipe to create the ‘perfect ginger bath.’ The measurements are used as a guide and it’s really hard to mess this up ◡̈ Also the most crucial step is ‘don’t let yourself get cold!’ Any draft or wind from bathing can make your body weak.
Step 1: Peel ginger skins.
Step 2: After peeling ginger skins, you can set the ginger meat aside for other dishes if you have recipes that use it. If you want to use the ginger meat, proceed to cut in smaller pieces.
Step 3: If you want to use the ginger meat, we recommend that you pound it with the back of your knife to release natural juices.
Step 4: Boil water in a large pot.
Step 5: Add your ginger in the water and boil for 15 minutes. After boiling, take out the ginger skins.
Step 6: The ginger bath water should turn yellow in color and is very hot to the touch! Be careful to not burn yourself! You can use this water to wash your hair or your body. Just make sure that the room is very warm when you bathe so you don’t get too cold.
Let the water cool so you don’t burn yourself. You can also add some colder water so it’s the perfect temperature for you to bathe. It is OK to dilute the water a little bit because this recipe doesn’t need to be a perfect science!
The most important thing after washing your hair and bathing is to blow dry your hair. Your head is the most vulnerable place to get cold or catch a draft!
Expert Tips
- Let the ginger bath water cool so you don’t burn yourself. You can also add some colder water so it’s the perfect temperature for you to bathe. It is OK to dilute the water a little bit because this recipe doesn’t need to be a perfect science!
- The most important thing after washing your hair and bathing is to blow dry your hair. Your head is the most vulnerable place to get cold or catch a draft!
Recipe FAQs
Two bath sessions or 2 days maximum. Chinese people love using fresh ginger water so we boil a new batch when we need this. You don’t need to refrigerate this, it won’t go bad!
Yes, you can. Just watch out for the eyes.
Ginger Bath Water for Postpartum
Ingredients
- 3 ginger peel peeled
- 3.5 liters water
- 1 ginger meat (optional) chopped
Instructions
- Peel you ginger and smash the ginger to release the flavor.
- In a large pot, add your ginger and boil for 15 minutes on high heat.
- Take out the ginger from the water.
- Let the water cool so you don’t burn yourself. You can also add some colder water so it’s the perfect temperature for you to bathe. It is OK to dilute the water a little bit because this recipe doesn’t need to be a perfect science!
- You can use this water to wash your hair or your body. Adjust the temperature of the ginger water to your liking when bathing. Make the water warm but not too hot that it will burn your skin.
- The most important thing after washing your hair and bathing is to blow dry your hair. Your head is the most vulnerable place to get cold or catch a draft!
Notes
- Let the ginger bath water cool so you don’t burn yourself. You can also add some colder water so it’s the perfect temperature for you to bathe. It is OK to dilute the water a little bit because this recipe doesn’t need to be a perfect science!
- The most important thing after washing your hair and bathing is to blow dry your hair. Your head is the most vulnerable place to get cold or catch a draft!
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