THE PEOPLE AND THEIR CULTURE

BIRTH

Maternity homes and modern methods of helping the mother at child-birth are increasingly coming into vogue though the old method still persists. Particularly it is customary for the expecting mother to go to her parents for her first confinement. If confinement is done in traditional style, at the first inception of labour, she is taken to a lying-in room in the house which is kept clean, dimlighted and secured against breezes of air. A carpai and a cradle are kept ready. An experienced midwife, an old woman of the household, see to all her requirements for the first few days.

How the young mother is treated may be described in some detail. For some time, the position of the mother is kept unchanged after parturition. After a while the midwife ties the child's umbilical cord with a strong cotton thread about three inches away from the naval and cuts it off with a sharp knife. She besmears the spot where the cut was effected with ashes and the mother and child are given an oil-cum-turmeric bath. Turmeric is regarded as a disinfectant and purifying agent. A hot water bath billows and the baby is wrapped up in cloth bandages, the mother is given butter and myrrh pills, the child is dosed a few drops of castor oil mixed with honey. Myrrh incense is burnt and waved all over the place and the mother is disinfected by burning ova and balantsopa. With her baby beside her, the mother is laid on the carpal covered with warm clothing with a segdi of live fire under n. Cow's urine is sprinkled all about. A Brahman priest may be called in to recite Santipath (soothing verses). Care is taken to keep the mother's room continuously lighted and the mother is provided constant company of somebody or other. For ten days the mother is given particularly nutritious diet and even afterwards specially prepared nutritious food articles like ghee, dales, almonds, etc., are given.

The fifth and sixth day worships are regarded as particularly important for the ne born babe. Some deities are supposed to preside over the baby's fate and they need to be properly propitiated. An areca-nut cutter and some sharp instrument like a sword or a sickle are placed on a low stool and offered sandal paste and flowers in the name of the deity who presides over the fifth day. On the sixth day a blank sheet of paper, a reed pen and ink are set on a low stool and are worshipped as on the fifth day. The sixth day deity is supposed to inscribe on the baby's forehead his future. The mother prays on both clays for their benedictions. On both days, relatives and friends are feasted. For ten days the mother is not touched by any one except the midwife. The family also used to observe suher (ceremonial impurity) and abstained from the usual religious performances during the first ten days after child birth, but this observance has now practically disappeared. On the eleventh day the mother is given a purificatory bath with the baby and then members of the family can touch her and the baby. The midwife is given suitable presents. The twelfth day is festival day when friends and relatives bring presents, to mother and child, the child is given a name and his ears pierced with a gold wire.

A male offspring is highly prized as the first arrival and somehow or other, the belief still persists that male children are more precious than female ones. The idea is so strongly imbedded in the social system that even while expressing good wishes to a young bride the elderly people and venerable priests wish that she be blessed with eight sons.

The caul or cudakarma sacrament, i.e., the first cutting of the hair on the head was once ceremoniously performed but has now almost disappeared among most classes.

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