There are so many confinement taboos after childbirth. How do I tell religious requirements apart from mere custom?

Religion requires you to look after your health and cleanliness after childbirth, while many other confinement taboos are only customs that may be followed or left. Practices that genuinely protect rest, nutrition and the body's recovery are in line with the duty to look after yourself. Customs with no basis are not obligatory, and those that harm your health should be abandoned. Avoid believing that anything brings luck or wards off misfortune, because that touches on belief (akidah). Tell them apart by asking: does this protect health, or is it just an inherited belief? Consult a doctor on health matters, and a religious officer on rulings if in doubt. See postnatal health.