Dietary Methods for Pregnancy Edema
Pregnancy edema refers to lower-limb swelling, abdominal distension, rapid abdominal-girth increase (beyond the month of gestation), marked weight gain, sometimes head, face, and whole-body swelling, appearing after the fifth or sixth month. TCM also calls it fetus-water swelling (taishui zhongman). Being a pregnancy disorder, it is also called zizhong (child-swelling). Obstetric examination showing amniotic fluid above 2,000 mL is diagnosed as polyhydramnios. If untreated promptly, it severely affects fetal development.
The cause, by TCM, is mainly insufficiency of spleen and kidney yang qi, with water-damp gathering and not transforming. If the pregnant woman's spleen and stomach are weak, or she eats too much cold-raw, the spleen yang is injured, transport-and-transformation fails, water-damp does not transform, and edema arises; if her yang qi is innately weak, during pregnancy yin-blood gathers to nourish the fetus and affects kidney-yang warming, the bladder's qi-transformation fails, water gathers in the womb-palace, and edema arises.
In treatment, besides supplementing qi and fortifying spleen, warming kidney and aiding yang, transforming qi and moving water, securing the fetus — dietary should choose warm-nourishing but not dry-blazing, drain-promoting but not fetus-harming. Staples: rice, flour, beans (millet, chixiaodou); vegetables: wax gourd, rape, wosun, bamboo shoot, shanyao, arrowhead, carrot, ginger; with lean meat, liver, carp, crucian carp, chicken, duck. Avoid cold-raw, oily, salty foods.
Spleen-Deficient, Damp-Stagnant Type
After five months of pregnancy, abdomen enlarges fast, weight gains, face and legs swell, pressure leaves a pit; weariness, short of breath, no appetite, bland mouth, loose stools, scant urine; tongue pale, coating white-moist, pulse slippery-slow without force. Use fortify-spleen, supplement-qi, drain-water, secure-fetus diet.
**1. Fuling Fen Zhou.** Fuling powder 15 g, polished rice 50 g, red dates 7 (pitted); cook into congee; eat as breakfast.
**2. Liyu Chixiaodou Zhou.** One carp, cleaned, boiled into white broth, strained. Use 100 g chixiaodou to make congee; when the bean is cooked, add 2–3 spoons of fish broth and mix. Eat as breakfast.
**3. Shuyu Zhou.** Raw huai shanyao 500 g, finely ground (commercial shanyao powder available); 20–30 g per dose, mix with cool boiled water, place in pan over the stove, stir constantly with chopsticks; in two or three boils a congee forms. Eat ad libitum.
**4. Donggua Yangrou Tang.** Wax gourd 50 g (peeled, seeded), lean lamb 50 g (sliced); scallion, ginger, star anise, salt, sesame oil to taste. First boil the gourd with the spices, then mix the lamb with chopped scallion and sesame oil, add when gourd is done, bring to boil. Take as main-meal soup.
**5. Jiyu Geng.** A large crucian carp 500 g (scaled, gutted, cleaned), one head of garlic, white pepper 3 g, chenpi 3 g, sharen 3 g, scallion, a little salt. Place garlic and pepper, etc., inside the fish, cook until done into a stew, season. Take as main-meal dish.
**6. Shanyao Biandou Gao.** Fresh shanyao 500 g, fresh biandou (hyacinth bean) 100 g, chenpi shred 6 g, red-date flesh 500 g. Peel shanyao and slice thin; chop biandou and dates; mix all with a little starch paste; place in small bowls and steam. Eat as breakfast.
Kidney-Yang Insufficient, Qi Failing to Transform Water Type
In pregnancy: head and lower-limb swelling, abdomen enlarges fast, weight gains, aversion to cold and love of warmth, weak short breath, cannot lie flat, scant urine and loose stool; tongue pale-plump with teeth-marks, coating white-slippery, pulse sunken-slow without force. Use warm-kidney-yang, move-water, secure-fetus diet.
**1. Yazhi Zhou.** First boil duck broth, skim oil; use white rice to make congee; near done, add 2–3 spoons of duck broth; mix, eat.
**2. Liyu Tang.** A large carp (gutted, scales kept), with 300–500 g wax gourd, a little scallion white and garlic; no salt. Boil till soft, strain. Drink once a day (about 300 mL). For seven days.
**3. Heidou Liyu Tang.** One carp (scaled, gutted); black soybean 50 g. Stuff the bean into the fish and sew up, boil till both are soft into thick broth. Drink ad libitum.
**4. Yangshen Geng.** Two lamb kidneys (sliced), roucongrong 30 g, white pepper 6 g, chenpi 3 g, cao guo 5 g, scallion, ginger, salt to taste. Place congrong, pepper, chenpi, cao guo, scallion, ginger in cheesecloth bag; boil with lamb kidney for soup. Use the soup to cook noodles for a stew.