At Omiya-mairi (the custom of taking the newborn baby to the shrine to pray for blessing)

　It has been quite a while since my last renewal. The reason for my long pause was that I gave birth to my first boy in the year-end of December 23, and trying my best in unfamiliar child-raising. Now that he is five-month-old and our life has gradually settled, in addition to Megahealth News, hereafter, I would like to inform you in the articles on my daily life with my son as a record of trying my best in child-raising.
　And the first article of my child-raising is the story on “Omiya-mairi.” Omiya-mairi is also known as “Hatsumiya-mode” and it is a custom to pay a visit to the local guardian deity for the first time on the 32nd day after birth for a baby boy, and the 33rd day for a baby girl.
　Traditionally, at Omiya-mairi, the grandmother carries the baby dressed in celebration-robe of Hitotsumi-kimono (a kimono for an infant made of a single piece of cloth) and receive the purification prayer. You may wonder why grandmother instead of mother carries the baby. It is because that at the time of Omiya-mairi, mother is still in her postnatal lying-in period. In general, as mother’s body need one month and a half to two months to recover from the damage and exhaustion after giving birth, and the ancient people must have known that it was harmful for the mother’s health to carry a heavy thing (a baby is about 4~5 kg by that time) and walk for a long period of time. However, as my mother was called to heaven early and my parents-in-law are in distant place, adults attending Omiya-mairi was my father, husband and myself, just three of us. And I was the only woman, and inevitably I had to carry the baby.
　In my case, I was able to endure the muscular fatigue of carrying heavy baby for a long hour, but as my breast milk is rich, I was worried that by wearing kimono and not being able to breast-feed, and so the breasts will be swollen with milk. And then, I remembered an experience of a customer, who also had rich breast milk and developed mastitis when she slept without breast-feeding during the night. And she said that when she began taking MERGEN before going to bed and the flow of mammary gland became smooth and stopped developing mastitis. And so, I followed her and took MERGEN in the morning of Omiya-mairi, by the grace of God or the efficacy of MERGEN, I was able to serenely pay respect to deity without developing mastitis, carrying my baby wearing kimono for a long hour. I was so happy and felt relieved.
　Episodes relating to Omiya-mairi will continue next time. I hope you will also view the following renewal.