Ming Mei was at home during her postpartum confinement, and the busiest person was Zhao Guihua.
The New Year holiday was only a few days long, and although Zhuang Zhixi had a few extra days of paternity leave, it passed by in the blink of an eye. Once the holiday was over, he had to return to work. In those days, there was no such thing as taking leave because your wife was in confinement. That would have invited gossip and criticism.
Moreover, the factory wouldn't grant such leave anyway.
Zhuang Zhixi had already been home longer than most, and once he went back to work, Zhao Guihua was left to manage everything at home. Don't think being a housewife is easy—with Ming Mei in confinement, Zhao Guihua felt like the household chores had doubled overnight.
What she missed most was the idea of a postpartum doula.
Unfortunately, such services didn't exist back then.
