The only birth I have been present for, besides my own, was my nephews. He was born July 11, 2007. What a memorable event for me! During her pregnancy, my sister kept up with all of her prenatal visits, usually myself or one of my other sisters drove her to her doctor appointments. Noah was her first child and she did have one case of false delivery a couple days prior to his actual birth. After several hours of contractions and increased pressure, my sister delivered Noah vaginally around 2:30pm. I was amazed at how little the obstetrician was actually involved in the delivery. I witnessed the nurses and some medical trainees encouraging, prepping and assisting my sister during the hours preceding the actual delivery. Overall, Noah was delivered with very little distress or trouble. His pressure did drop for a little while, but recovered once they re-positioned my sister. Although delivery occurred in a private birthing room in the hospital, I was also surprised by the delay in my sister being able to hold her new baby. Noah was whisked to the side of the room to be cleaned, weighed, etc. Then after about 15 minutes he was brought to her. Many variables are present during child birth that affect a child; timing, environment, and handling.
Alaska -
I chose to learn how infant deliveries are handled in Alaska.
The rituals associated with birth are simple. An infant should be born in a hut separate from that inhabited by the family. If this is not done, then the hut must be abandoned. After giving birth, the mother is isolated for a period of time according to the sex of her child; one month for a boy and two for a girl. Eight days after the child is born he/she is given a sort of baptism by the shaman; this is the giving the child to a protective spirit and the assigning of a name. The naming of a child is very important since the Eskimos gave newborns the names of recently deceased family members. This was believed to be a type of reincarnation where the qualities of the dead person was taken on by the newborn. In fact, if the newborn is unwanted, she may be killed within the eight days after birth and it would not be considered murder providing that she is still nameless.
http://www.astronomy.pomona.edu/archeo/alaska/eskimo.html.
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