Religious rituals and secular rituals: interpenetrating models of childbirth in a modern, Israeli context

Sociology of Religion, Spring, 1993 by Susan Starr Sered

In 1989 I conducted fieldwork among postpartum women on the maternity ward of a Jerusalem hospital. The women whom I interviewed reported having performed close to two hundred different religious and secular rituals during pregnancy, birth, and the immediate post-partum period. This vast ritual reservoir reflected a multiplicity of models of fertility and childbirth. In this article, I examine the interpenetration of religious and secular childbirth rituals in the context of a modern and pluralistic society.

In Israel, as in many other societies, fertility is a focus for ritual activity. Conception, pregnancy, labor, delivery, and the postpartum period are fraught with uncertainty, fear, danger, deep relief, joy, a sense of wonder, and increased physical and emotional vulnerability. Sensations range from comforting fullness to mild discomfort to acute or chronic pain. The unborn baby is a mystery: even with sophisticated technology one cannot be sure of a healthy baby until after the birth. Most women know that their life-styles will change drastically when the newborn infant enters their lives. Pregnancy and birth are a liminal time -- one is no longer "just" a woman, but not yet the mother of this particular baby. Childbirth is a period of transition, both socially (from nonparent to parent) and personally (from self-as-individual to self-in-relationship). Rituals reflecting some or all of these feelings and changes may be performed by those concerned with the birth process. The meaning and process of selecting rituals vary enormously depending upon cultural context.

The bulk of the material discussed in this article was collected through wide-ranging interviews with fifty-five women who were resting in their beds after having delivered.(1) The interviews covered obstetrical history, feelings about and description of the pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period, and secular and religious rituals concerning pregnancy, birth, and the newborn baby. All of the women were Jewish and had given birth during the previous few hours or days to live babies. They were a mixed population in terms of age (ranging from 20 to 41 years, almost half were between 25 and 29 years old); obstetrical history (uncomplicated to very difficult); education (ranging from 10 years to 18 years, more than half of the women graduated college); and number of children (0-9, almost half of the women had two or more previous children). Their ethnic backgrounds were equally varied: 21 American or British-born women, 9 Israeli women of European ancestry, 10 Israeli women of North African ancestry, 7 Israeli women of Asian ancestry, 5 North African or Asian-born women, 3 European or South American-born women. Their religious self-identification or affiliation ranged from secular (6 women) and traditional (17 women), to orthodox (15 women) and ultra-orthodox (17 women).(2)

The hospital at which I carried out this study is known throughout Israel for its natural, noninterventionist, and relaxed approach to childbirth. Husbands are encouraged to remain with their wives during the birth, and the hospital as a policy allows women to bring personal items (pictures, tape players, religious objects) into the birthing rooms, to give birth in nonconventional positions, and (within certain limits) to structure the birth experience as they wish. I selected this hospital in order to maximize my contact with women who had freedom to express their ritual preferences.(3)

MULTIPLE MODELS OF FERTILITY

Robert J. Smith (1974) contends that culture is really the debris or "fall-out" of past ideological systems. Rather than a coherent whole, cultures are made up of elements, of paradigms, that worked at various times in the past, and that people hope will again work in the future. Particularly in cultures with long and developed literary traditions, individuals may treat history as a smorgasbord from which they select attitudes and behaviors that suit their current needs. To the outside observer these attitudes and behaviors may seem wildly inconsistent, but to the cultural participant they are all part of the same system, and thus carry a natural coherence. Within modern societies, because of increased transportation, information, and communication technologies, the adoption of new elements is greatly accelerated. At the same time, radically differeing world views (loosely labeled scientific and religious, rational and irrational) continue to coexist.

Jerusalem women hold multiple models of fertility and childbirth (cf. Topley, 1974, on Hong Kong). Unlike their mothers and grandmothers, most of the women of this study had either attended childbirth preparation courses, or read self-help or natural childbirth manuals. These courses and books generally treat pregnancy as a matter over which women have a great deal of control through, for example, diet and exercise. Birth is described as a test of personal achievement -- the successful birther is one who avoids pain-killing medication and cesarean sections (cf. Boston Women's Health Collective, 1984). To this end, prepared childbirth encourages the participation of fathers-to-be, the acquiring of information by the parents-to-be, and the psychological aspects of birth. At the hospital chosen for this study, unless a birthing woman has chosen to hire a private doctor (and few do), all uncomplicated births are attended by female midwives. Most of the midwives feel comfortable with the natural birth model and encourage birthing women to use relaxation breathing techniques rather than drugs. Almost all of the postpartum women described their midwives in superlative terms, stressing that, in the words of one informant, "She talked to me. That's what really helped."