La Cuarentena: The Latin American Forty Days
"Cuarenta días. La madre dentro, el mundo afuera."
La Cuarentena means simply "the forty." It is the postpartum tradition observed across much of Latin America, the period during which the new mother stays home, is fed warm food, and is supported by the women of her family. There are variations across Mexico, Central, and South America, but the shape is the same: forty days of rest, of warmth, of being held.
The principle
La cuarentena rests on an older understanding of the body shared across much of Mesoamerica: that birth is a hot event, and the body afterwards is left open and cold. The forty days are for warming, for closing, for restoring balance before the mother returns to the world.
The practices
The mother stays home. She is bathed in warm herbal water, never cold. Her belly is bound with a long cloth, the faja, to support the abdominal wall and hold her body together as she heals. The rebozo, the long woven shawl, is used for swaddling the baby and for wrapping the mother herself. In many households she keeps her head covered through the early days, protected from draughts she would not otherwise notice. She does not lift, sweep, cook, or carry. The women in her family do.
At or near the end of the forty days, many families hold a closing ceremony: la cerrada. The mother's body is steamed, bathed, and wrapped tightly with the rebozo, working gently from head to feet, closing what birth has opened. For many women, la cerrada is the moment that lets them feel the period has finished. Without it, they describe being left open. With it, something settles that they can carry into the rest of motherhood.
The food
Food during la cuarentena is warm, simple, easy to digest. Caldos and broths feature heavily, especially chicken broth simmered with herbs and vegetables. Atole, a warm corn-based drink, is offered for nourishment and lactation. Eggs, beans, soft tortillas, stewed fruit. Anything cold, raw, or considered cooling is held back from the first weeks.
The herbs
Manzanilla (chamomile) is brewed for calming and digestion. Hierba buena (mint) and albahaca (basil) appear in postpartum teas and herbal baths. Romero (rosemary) supports warmth and circulation. Baths drawn from these plants, baños, are used through the forty days to bathe the mother and support her body's return.
What la cuarentena teaches every mother
At its heart, la cuarentena is the same teaching as jaapa, as zuo yuezi, as omugwo. Stay close. Stay warm. Be fed. Be held. Let the women around you carry what you cannot. Whatever heritage you carry, the wisdom belongs to you if you want it.
On Working Across Cultures
For years I worked as cabin crew on long-haul routes. Alongside colleagues and the women I met in the cities we flew to, I noticed how differently people talked about new mothers, about grandmothers, about the weeks after birth. It was only after I had my own baby, and lost my mum in those first weeks, that I understood how thin our postpartum had become.
I am of Western heritage. The traditions held on these pages are not mine to claim. If you have inherited one, jaapa or zuo yuezi or omugwo or la cuarentena or chilla or another, your family holds it better than I ever will. What I can do is the work that makes space for that tradition to happen. The cooking and the cleaning. The herbal teas brewed to the recipe your mother sends. The warm oil prepared the way your maternal aunt tells me to prepare it. The nights when someone needs to sit awake with the baby so a grandmother can sleep.
We build your postpartum together. The shape comes from you. Plants of my ancestral lands sit alongside whatever your tradition asks for. Where my knowledge runs out, I learn from the people in your life who hold it.
What this could look like in your postpartum
If your family practises la cuarentena and you would like a doula working alongside, I can hold the practical, physical, and emotional weight of those forty days. We plan together. If your mother, abuela, or partera is travelling to be with you, my role might be the quieter one, supporting the household so they can focus on you. If they cannot come, I can take on more of the hands-on care.
Some families want a cuarentena-led structure with la cerrada at the end. Some wish to honour both a Latin American and an English family inheritance in the same six weeks. We design your bespoke postpartum together.
Begin Your Postpartum
The Sacred Pause is my six-week postpartum offering, and the most natural fit for a cuarentena-honouring postpartum. To talk through what your forty days could look like, book a free discovery call. There is no pressure on either side.
Mothering the Mother