Women have been birthing babies literally forever. There has not been a time on Earth where women were not giving birth to children. Before hospitals, before running water, before electricity, before pain medicine, before everything that so many modern women count on for their own deliveries... women were getting pregnant and giving birth. Over the years, there have been so many different ideologies and philosophies surrounding what the birthing process should be and what it should signify. Different tokens have come in and out of play in different cultures, representing different hopes, fears, and beliefs. These 9 different rituals from many, many different points in history are just a small glimpse of the vast historyof childbirth. Sometimes innovation is good, but other times? Well, a fewof these more natural rituals and practices might stillmake a lot of sense to certain people. Did you know about any of these birthing practices before? Did we miss any from our list? Let us know in the comments. Please SHARE with yourfellow mothers on Facebook to see what they think about these rituals.
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1. Inviting An Audience
Flickr / matee
Around 430 B.C. in Ancient Greece, midwives would scour the room for any knots of any kind, as they were bad luck. They were thought to delay and complicate labor.
3. Wheeling In The Cheese
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Columbia
Peasants in rural 17th Century Russia did not have access to doctors. What they did have was their version of a midwife, called apovitukha. Thepovitukha would have the laboring mother jump off of benches to speed the labor along. They’d also hang her from her feet and even force her to vomit. It might sound crazy, but thepovitukha would also shove a rag in the mother’s rear end to make sure that the baby came out of the right hole.
5. Slipping Into A "Twilight Sleep"
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Wikimedia Commons
Queen Victoria had just about had it with the pain of childbirth by her eighthchild and requested some relief. Up until then, it was considered ungodly to use painkillers or drugs to ease childbirth, but when the Queen did it? It started an entire revolution, for better or for worse. Cocaine, opium, and nitrousoxide were among a few of the painkillers used.
7. Keeping Evil Spirits At Bay
instead of washing the baby immediately after exiting the womb, evil spirits were warded off by delayinga bath for 3 days.
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8. Staying Silent
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Wikimedia Commons
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In ancient times, belly dancing was a form of honoring the great mother, the giver of life. During childbirth, the laboring mother would squat and roll her belly in anticipation for the delivery. This, unlike many other practices, actually aided in delivery, as it strengthened her abdominal muscles. Have you ever heard of any of these practices and rituals before? Please SHARE with your family and friends on Facebook!
Source article at =>http://littlethings.com/
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