Contents
Ancestral rites of different times and countries
Few women are not afraid of childbirth, well, at least not at all worried. And this is in modern conditions, when medicine has already stepped far ahead. But in the old days everything was much worse, therefore, there were also much more folk customs and signs. Some, frankly, seem just wild …
In relatively recent times in Russia, it was believed that it was impossible to give birth in the house. This is because the place of birth is considered unclean, like the woman in labor herself. After giving birth, a woman was not allowed to go to church either. At the same time, the woman in labor was sent … no, not to the hospital, but, for example, to the cattle shed. But more often – to the bathhouse. It was at least clean and warm there.
With the onset of contractions, all the surrounding objects were removed from the woman and her hair was loosened, all doors and windows were opened: it was believed that this way the birth would be easier. And Bulgakov, in his “Notes of a Young Doctor”, said that midwives stuffed sugar into the woman’s cervix – they lured the child for sweets.
2. The midwife caused vomiting
Also ours, a primordially Russian rite. During labor, the midwife helped the woman in labor to walk around the house, massaged the woman’s lower back, stroked her belly and said between labor pains: “Christ was born, and we are expecting a baby. Amen”. If childbirth dragged on, they lit a candle and read another conspiracy: “While the candle burns out, here she will give birth. Amen”. This is all normal and is now perceived in principle as help. Wild it seems like this: closer to the finale, the midwife necessarily caused the woman in labor to vomit. It was believed that this opens up the cervix well. The woman was also allowed to chew on her own hair. They believed that this strange remedy relieves pain.
3. The husband dressed up in his wife’s clothes
Different localities had different attitudes towards the presence of husbands during childbirth. Somewhere the spouse was simply escorted out of the house, but more often he played a very active role. For example, in order to deceive the evil spirits, the husband dressed in his wife’s clothes, tied her with a scarf and rolled on the floor, moaning and crying. If labor was delayed, the husband was asked to take off his pants and turn them inside out.
By the way, the history of joint childbirth in other countries is curious. It turns out that the Comanche Indians did not even discuss this: the man was not only present at childbirth, but also actively participated – he did a massage of the abdomen, took the baby, cut the umbilical cord. In Africa and India, joint childbirth was treated in the same way. In our country, partner childbirth is still dubious.
The closest “relatives” of the Slavs, as far as ancestral customs are concerned, seem to live in Nepal. There, a woman in labor is also considered unclean. Immediately after giving birth, she is expelled from the settlement for 11 days in order to be cleansed. Women have to live in huts or just under sheds somewhere on the outskirts. They are forbidden to cook their own food and heat their homes. Most of the exiled do not come back – “exile” kills them.
In New Guinea, by the way, women do give birth in the forest. But there, in general, everything is rather strange: the husband, having learned that his wife was expecting a child, left home and lived as a hermit. When the moment of childbirth came, the woman went into the forest, and the husband returned home and groaned: he distracted evil spirits from his wife. He took the fire on himself.
Ethiopia is home to some truly terrible customs. Here they practice massage of the uterus during childbirth: a woman’s belly is crumpled and squeezed with all her might. This leads to rupture of the uterus. To make it easier for the placenta to come off, the woman’s throat is cauterized with a red-hot iron. Alternatively, they shake the women with all their might, trying to shake the afterbirth out of her. But compared to the fact that female circumcision is still practiced here, this seems like a trifle. In some communities, after this terrible procedure, the girls’ genitals are simply sewn up, leaving a small hole to make the man more pleasant. During childbirth, the scar is dissected, then sutured again.
And again our native custom. If a child was born prematurely or was very weak, then he was sent to “ripen” in the oven. The child smeared with rye dough was placed on a bread shovel, tied to it and sent three times for a short time to a warm (not hot!) Oven, in which there was no fire. In some places it was entrusted to the midwife, in others – to the mother herself, in others – to the oldest woman in the village. It was believed that a woman’s womb is also a furnace. It’s just that sometimes she doesn’t bake the child very well.
For some non-Slavic peoples, a rite of imitation of a funeral was carried out. This was done if the child was very weak. The mother covered the child with a white veil and, holding a lighted candle above him, smoked incense. Everything looked as if someone had died in the house. It was believed that death, which was sent for the child, would think about the same. And since he died, he will no longer touch him.
In Russia, too, they were afraid that they would come for the child immediately after birth. But not death, but devils. Therefore, the woman in labor was not allowed to sleep – she had to look with all her eyes so that the baby would not be dragged away by demons.