Since I have no children of my own I will tell you all about the first birth that I was around for. It was the birth of my nephews. Almost 10 years ago my sister had twin boys by C-section. She spent the day in the hospital and because she had toxemia (pregnancy induced hypertension) her doctors decided to do a C-section to get both of the boys out. As her support, myself, my dad, my mom, and my nephews' father were there however only my dad and the boys' dad went into the room and were present for delivery of both the boys. My nephews stayed in the hospital for about one week until they were ready to go home. When the first of my nephews came home, they were greeted by my family.
I chose to read about how the haitian culture gives birth. There were a lot of things that I found very interesting because a lot of their culture is intertwined with how they go through the delivery process itself and also during the postpartum period. One thing that I found particularly interesting was that the fathers of the children are not usually present for the birth because they believe that the labor process is strictly for women. Also most women do not seek any medical advising during pregnancy. Some of the cultural facts surrounding pregnancy, delivery, and the postpartum period that I found to be very interesting as well had to do with the mother and the child being kept away from everyone for the first month after the baby is born. The purpose of that is to allow time for the mother and child to recuperate. Also, another thing that I thought was very interesting was this ritual called the "three baths." It is described as:
"Special herbs are gathered and water is made from it to bathe in, and a tea made to drink. For the first three postpartum days the woman is encouraged to take a hot bath in the herb fortified water; this is the first bath. The next three days she is encouraged to bathe in herb fortified water that is warmed by the sun; this is the second bath . When the baby reaches the age of 1 month, the mother is encouraged to take the third, cold, bath. This last bath is thought to help healing and tighten the joints and muscles that were loosened by delivery."
(http://www.salisbury.edu/nursing/haitiancultcomp/preg_and_childbear_prac.htm)
It is interesting to see how different other people from around the world's birthing practices are from our own. In comparison, one of the obvious differences was that here men, especially the father of the child, is allowed to be in attendance at the birth of the child. In addition, doctors are a vital part of the process in the child birth here as well as during the entire pregnancy but in Haiti this is not the case. There are lots of differences in the the delivery process however, I don't think that any one way is better.
http://www.salisbury.edu/nursing/haitiancultcomp/preg_and_childbear_prac.htm
If you are interested in other birth rituals, this might also be a good website: http://www.midwiferytoday.com/enews/enews0241.asp
I read something similar about the bathing process after the baby is born. In the Philippines, traditionally, the mother would have 12 days of bed rest to heal from the pregnancy and delivery. At the end of the 12 days, she would take a bath in water that had been boiled in guava and orange leaves. It's interesting to read about the similiarities between two different cultures.
ReplyDeleteIt is really interesting how different cultures do things. I found the bath information particularly interesting. I have never heard of anything like that before! I also found the separation of mother and child really interesting just because I have always been told how important that bonding time is for mother and child. It is just interesting how different cultures view things!
ReplyDelete-Hailey