Birth Traditions

One of the interesting facts about pregnancy and birth are the traditions and beliefs regarding it. Some might call them lore or old wives tales or witchcraft. All cultures have them about all sorts of things but pregnancy and birth have some of the most fascinating, at least to this midwife. For example, how do you tell if you are having a boy or girl without an ultrasound or waiting until the baby is born. Some will say it is based on what part of the day the baby is active or how they lie in the uterus or possible what way a necklace swings when it is held over the stomach of a pregnant woman. Just Google it sometime for a little fun (and funny) reading.

Indonesian culture because it is made up of so many people groups has many different traditions and beliefs related to pregnancy and birth. Here is a story that a missionary serving in West Kalimantan shared recently in one of her blog posts about how the spirits have given instructions to the tribal people they work with about birth. 

Another aspect of the culture I’ve been trying to go a bit deeper in is the spiritual belief system.  There are so many different spirits/ghosts beings that they mostly fear but often call on for help, healing, wisdom, and protection.  One in particular is a spirit that the stories claim, taught them how woman have babies.   Supposedly way back when, when a woman was pregnant and about time to have the baby, they would cut the stomach open to “get the baby out” and then both mother and baby would die.  Well a ghost put a man in a type of trance by a certain tree and told a story of how it should be done - with people pushing from the top and sides and letting the baby come out naturally.  Well when the time came for that man’s wife to give birth that is exactly what he did.  And to his great surprise it worked and was then the new way to deliver babies.  This is still the traditional way they deliver, with people pushing from the top and sides during delivery.  

Andrea Ullum

New Tribes Mission 

http://www.ullumhome.com/

I can just hear the gasps from my midwife and OB friends after reading this, but it is better than how they did it in the past :) I know there will be beliefs and traditions that I will find fascinating about birth in Indonesia and probably ones I find scary too.