Transmigrated as a Peasant Baby Who is Pampered by All

Chapter 587: Chapter 359: Menstrual Belt

At the time of Chinese New Year, Erin happened to feel unwell and took a couple of days off to recover to her usual self.

There was one thing that Samantha had never thought about before, and only now she realized she had ignored it for many years.

She thought about it all night but couldn’t figure it out. The next morning, when she saw her father going out, she decided to go find her mother.

”Who is it?” As soon as the door opened, Samantha heard her mother’s somewhat panicked voice, and she saw her hastily covering something up.

”Mom? What are you doing, being all secretive?”

That’s when she noticed a coal brazier under the window, with something like a bamboo sieve over it, roasting something, but it was covered.

The thing Erin just covered was this, Samantha wanted to go over to take a look, but was directly stopped by Erin.

”You child, how can you enter the room without knocking? Did you come looking for mom because you want to go out and play again?”

”No, I want to ask mom something. Mom, what exactly are you doing? Just let me have a look.”

After speaking, she tiptoed and stretched her neck to see what her mother was doing.

”You...” Erin appeared to want to get angry but suddenly stopped, ”Thinking about it, you aren’t that young anymore, and there are things you should know.”

”Huh? What?” Samantha looked up bewildered.

Erin seemed to have made up her mind, pulled Samantha over and said, ”Come on, I’ll tell you about these things.”

She seemed a bit embarrassed?

Samantha became more curious, what exactly is going on, it’s so mysterious, making her forget the original purpose of finding her mom.

”These are women’s things, you must not tell anyone else, it’s very embarrassing.”

In front of the brazier, Erin couldn’t help but instruct Samantha.

Samantha felt like she had some idea what it was.

As she was feeling incredulous at her own thoughts, she saw her mother directly uncover the cloth on top.

Indeed, underneath was a dustpan, roasting something.

But when she saw clearly what it was, Samantha instantly froze: ”Mom, this, this is?”

Inside the dustpan were cotton wool, still wet, it seemed to have been washed, and beside it was a rectangular cloth bag with long strings on all four corners.

Erin was obviously very embarrassed, not even daring to look at Samantha, even though she was her daughter.

However, she still endured the embarrassment and pointed to the cotton wool.

”In a few years, when you’re a bit older than your sister, one day you’ll...”

Samantha forced herself to listen amidst her shock, feeling both a reconstruction of her worldview and sympathy for women of this era.

According to her mother’s explanation, this was a menstrual belt.

The cotton wool was placed inside the menstrual belt, and now it was washed after use and replaced two or three times a month. Because it’s cold, the cotton wool doesn’t dry easily, so it’s roasted with charcoal.

Moreover, cotton wool is expensive, so not many people can afford it, even Erin only started using it in the recent years.

Before this, it was replaced with ash from firewood, which didn’t need washing, just replaced the ash when dirty.

And after each month ended, the menstrual belt would be washed.

Some poor women might only have one menstrual belt in their lifetime.

However, because ash from firewood was uncomfortable in summer, especially when sweating, so families with better conditions would strive to buy a little cotton wool for themselves.

Erin still reminded her not to be afraid when she found herself bleeding later, because she had already prepared menstrual belts for both daughters. ℴ

Telling her not to inform her brothers about it, not even the younger brother.

Those words passed through Samantha’s ears, but her mind was filled with sanitary pads from modern times.

Even the cheapest ones are definitely cleaner, hygienic, and breathable compared to these menstrual belts!

She held back for a long time, suppressing her urge to take them out right there.

”Mom, washing like this isn’t clean, it can easily cause illness. Next time, after washing, it’s best to boil everything in water for at least a quarter of an hour, then dry it in a ventilated place.”

”Ah? What are you saying?”

Samantha straightforwardly tore off the thick cloth covering the dustpan.

”It can’t be covered like this either, otherwise many invisible dirty things will grow on it, and when used, it will stick to the body and cause illness.”

As she spoke, she pushed the window open: ”Mom, no one will come in easily, and the position of this window is quite secluded, opening it won’t matter.”

She knew women of this era were shy, not only did they regard their reputation as very important, but they wouldn’t let these private items be seen by others, not even their husbands.

She guessed that her father probably didn’t know her mother’s things either, definitely hadn’t seen or touched them, otherwise, they wouldn’t be so tightly covered in the room.

Completely opposite to how boyfriends and husbands in her past life would openly buy sanitary pads for their girlfriends and wives.

”Samantha, you don’t...” Erin was almost frightened by Samantha’s actions, reaching out to close the window.

”Mom, do you know illness can shorten your lifespan?”

A single sentence directly stopped Erin’s actions.

Erin hesitated on her face, although Samantha did not say explicitly, they both knew which illness was referred to.

”Is it, really?”

Samantha nodded affirmatively: ”Mom, think about it yourself, isn’t it true that mostly women die more and die earlier, while men live many years longer? That’s the reason!”

Of course, marrying and having children too early and too many, damaging the body, not eating well or resting well during confinement, worrying too much, suffering grievances from in-laws, these are important reasons for women’s lifespan being shortened.

But Samantha wouldn’t say it in detail.

Sure enough, Erin suddenly froze: ”It seems to be true.”

There are more widowers than widows.

Samantha let out a breath of relief: ”Mom, I’ll go buy a special small stove and small earthen pot, from now on these things must be boiled for at least a quarter of an hour every time they’re washed.”

”Also, you must tell big sister, she doesn’t know yet.”

After saying this, she ran out, she originally wanted to ask her mom about dealing with the physiological period.

Unexpectedly, it was like this, making her feel very upset because she was nine years old, meaning her mom had been dealing with it like this for nine years.

Because she was preoccupied, when heading out she almost bumped into someone, but she kept her head down and walked forward.

”What happened to Samantha today?”

”Emily? You came at the right time, come over quickly, mom has something to tell you.”

Well, the person she bumped into was none other than the older sister Samantha was concerned about.

”What is it, mom, what was wrong with Samantha? She didn’t even see me just now.”

”Samantha is fine, she just told mom some things, let mom tell you.”

Though Erin was shy before, when it concerned her daughters’ safety, she was no longer shy, just wanting to quickly explain clearly to her daughter.