Chapter 84 Confinement (Subscription Request)
After arriving home, He Shengnan began a month-long confinement period.

After the confinement period, she will have nearly a month of vacation to take care of the child at home.

In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the state promulgated the "XX Institute's Regulations on Maternity Leave for Female Staff" last year, that is, in 55.

It stipulates the maternity insurance system for enterprises, state organs and public institutions, and clarifies the projects and benefit levels.

Female employees can enjoy 56 days of maternity leave; their employer will continue to pay their salary during the maternity leave; and the medical expenses during the childbirth period will be borne by the employee's employer.

It was not until the "Regulations on Labor Protection for Female Employees" was introduced in 1988 that normal maternity leave was extended from 56 days to 90 days, and the medical expenses for childbirth were borne by the employee's unit.

In the bedroom, the two mothers chattered and began to instruct He Shengnan and Wang Mengde on some precautions.

According to Ran Xiaomei and Zhou Xiaoyan, during this month, she could not go out, take a shower or wash her hair. She could only stay in the bedroom every day and could not even open the window.

Wang Mengde tried to argue several times that she could wash her hair during the confinement period and open the windows for ventilation appropriately, but they ruthlessly suppressed her.

He touched his nose, thinking that the reason didn't make sense to him, so he could only give He Shengnan a helpless look.

"Shengnan, I put the invoice from the hospital in the rightmost drawer of the long table, sandwiched between this book. When you go to work, take it to the company to get reimbursed."

Seeing that they were busy in the bedroom and he couldn't help, Wang Mengde began to pack the things he brought back from the hospital.

He just happened to find a few pieces of paper and saw the invoice issued by the hospital, and hurriedly spoke to the room.

"Okay, I got it. If I forget, remind me." He Shengnan agreed softly, and then continued, "By the way, there are also the birth reports of the two children. You should keep them well."

"Well, I'll put it in the box under the bed later, and go to handle the formalities for them in two days." Wang Mengde found his son's birth report and put it aside.

You can't lose this, you'll need it for registering your household registration and applying for a grain tax book.

According to the grain rationing standards, the two of them were children under the age of three, and their monthly ration was "six to eleven catties, with an average of no more than eight catties." The two children together had about 15 catties of food coupons.

After packing up, Ran Xiaomei and Zhou Xiaoyan also came out of the bedroom, and Wang Mengde quickly poured them a glass of water.

Sitting on the chair and drinking a sip of warm water, Ran Xiaomei instructed: "Meng De, go to the grocery store later and ask your classmate to help save some pork liver and pork kidneys."

"Okay mom, I'll go there soon."

In Wang Mengde's impression, women who have just given birth must eat some pork liver and pork kidneys during the confinement period.

Even though not many people eat pork liver in later generations and the price is cheap, sometimes people even give away pork liver if they buy too much meat. But in this era, pork liver is not cheap. The price is almost the same as pork, at 69 cents per pound.

Why is pork liver more expensive than pork?
That’s because in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, people’s living standards were generally low and they often suffered from anemia, and pig liver happened to be able to replenish blood.

Generally, when someone in the family has given birth, is sick, or has had surgery, they always cut some pig liver to make soup to nourish the body.

But a pig can only produce about two kilograms of liver. Because everyone is scrambling for it, it has become scarce, so it is sold at a high price. Sometimes, if you want to buy it, you even have to use connections to get it.

The same goes for pig kidneys. With the arrival of the peak of childbearing, each family generally has four or five children. There are more women giving birth, and there are no nutritional supplements, so women will eat a few pairs of kidneys during the confinement period.

It is said that drinking kidney soup can relieve back pain.

There are only two kidneys on a pig, weighing about 450 grams. Scarcity makes things valuable, so the price naturally goes up. He rode his bicycle to the supply and marketing cooperative and bought a few rolls of toilet paper.

Nowadays, most people in Beijing still use bean paper, but since Wang Mengde learned that the raw material of bean paper is made from waste paper picked up from the streets, dirty dirt piles, and toilets, he completely abandoned this kind of paper.

In the past two years, the paper used at home is all thick, clean, absorbent and strong yellow straw paper from the south. Now that we have a new mother and a child, we naturally need to use better paper.

Toilet paper rolls also came from the south. Beijing’s own toilet paper factory, the “Beijing No. 58 Papermaking Cooperative,” was not able to rebuild its factory and start production until .

After buying toilet paper, he went to the grocery store.

In the grocery store in Nanluoguxiang.

Fat Guo was leisurely waiting for the end of get off work. All the pork on the chopping board had been sold out.

"Meng De, you're here, what do you need?" Seeing him come in, Fatty Guo perked up, stood up and said with a smile.

"Do you have pork liver and pork kidneys?" Wang Mengde walked closer and asked in a low voice.

There were still many customers in the grocery store. He did not dare to speak loudly for fear of causing bad influence. However, Fatty Guo did not care at all. He said loudly:

"Hey, I knew you were going to buy this, I kept it for you a long time ago. If you didn't come, I would have sent it to your home after get off work.

After you finish eating one pound of pork liver, one pound of spare ribs, pork kidneys, etc., I will leave you another one in two days. If you don’t finish too much, it will go bad easily.”

Then he took out a pound of ribs and pork liver from under the chopping board.

"This is a pig that was delivered this afternoon. I cut the ribs myself. Take a look at the meat and see if it's okay."

After paying the money and taking the spare ribs and pork liver, Wang Mengde didn't even look at them and said casually, "You don't need to look at our relationship. I'm going back first. I'll go drink with you after I'm out of confinement."

Just as he was about to turn around and leave, he took two steps and suddenly thought of something. He turned around and asked in a low voice, "By the way, does the store sell milk powder?"

The birth of twins in the family is a happy thing, but the reality is that He Shengnan’s milk may not be enough for two children.

"I'll go ask it for you."

As Fatty Guo spoke, he walked along the aisle between the cabinets and came to the other salespersons. After muttering a few words under his breath, he walked over with an embarrassed expression on his face.

"Meng De, there is no milk powder in the store, only milk substitute powder. Do you want some?"

Milk substitute powder is made from soybeans as raw material and rice flour and egg yolk powder as auxiliary materials. It is used to replace the shortage of domestic milk powder.

In 1954, Shanghai Yimin Food Factory developed the famous "5410" infant formula milk substitute.

"I won't use the milk substitute for the time being. I'll come to you when I need it." Wang Mengde shook his head and said.

He knew that the quality of milk substitute was not stable and he was not willing to feed it to his child. It seemed that he had to find another way.

(End of this chapter)