The Practice of ‘Omugwo’ In Igbo Land

The Igbo traditional postpartum care ‘Omugwo’ according to anthropologists helps to keep postnatal depression at bay. This motherly care for her daughter after she gives birth is more common among the people of South-Eastern, Nigeria.

Children are highly valued in every tribe but amongst the Igbos, the joy of the birth of a child is very evident in everything that follows after the successful delivery by the mother. The Omugwo doesn’t just start after birth, few months to the due date of delivery, the mother of the expectant mother goes about gathering items that will be necessary for the duration.

What is Omugwo?

For a non-Igbo, the term Omugwo might sound foreign, to help them understand better, we will try to explain in clear terms. Omugwo is traditional care and special attention given to a woman starting right after she gives birth. It usually lasts for a period of 3-6 months depending on different factors.

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This post-partum care for a woman is usually by her mother or the closest relative in the instance that her mother is not around or dead. It’s worthy to state that the omugwo can precede childbirth, sometimes in cases that a woman is encountering difficulty during the last months of pregnancy her mother or a closer female relative can come around to help ease the process for her. But then the proper omugwo starts when the woman puts to bed.

Usually, the mother or any other woman visiting for the omugwo comes prepared with local delicacies and items needed for the nursing mother to bounce back to her body. It is a known fact that once a woman gives birth her body never remains the same from the body expansion to the clots of blood in her system that needs to be flushed down, the omugwo delicacy helps to fix this. The local delicacies include are yam pepper soup garnished with dry fish, ofe nsala (white soup) served with pounded yam, and sometimes agidi, made from pap. The soups are fixed with a blend of spices that include the West African pepper or the African Negro pepper. These dishes help to flush out bad blood and to help the breast milk flow well.

During the omugwo, it is a period the nursing mother just relaxes and be taken kiaruf. She practically only eats and sleeps, she is not in charge of the baby except for breastfeeding.
The nursing mother is assisted in taking her bath as she is made to sit in steaming hot water to fasten the healing process in her vagina area, the mother now dabs her abdomen with hot water, not your average bathing hot water.

At the end of the 3-6 months omugwo, the mother or the female relative who came for the omugwo is ready to go. She is sent forth home in a grand style depending on the financial capability of the couple she visited. Different luxurious items are bought for her like bags, shoes, dresses, foodstuff, etc, and sometimes a car.
Omugwo is one of Igbo traditional practice that is still very much valid till date.