Advocate program for healthy traditional houses, Ume Kbubu, in a Timor community: preserving traditional behavior and promoting improved health outcomes.

Families in the Timor society of Indonesia have customarily used traditional houses, called Ume Kbubu, for confinement practices of a newborn baby and the mother during the first 40 days after birth. The practice, known as Sei (smoke) tradition, involves retaining heat, which is believed to foster healing, inside the house by continuously burning a wood burning stove. Exacerbated by inadequate ventilation in the traditional house, this practice results in poor indoor air quality and negatively affects the health of the mother and baby.