Birth Ceremonies in the Russian Family

Rachuk

Irina Rachuk

Professor L. M. Ntutela

CLDV 101

5 October 2012

Birth Ceremonies in the Russian Family

For women, there are no more significant and memorable events in a life than having a baby. Childbirth is the most sacred and most important period in any woman’s life. There are many different ceremonial procedures that surround the birth of a child depending on cultural beliefs, values, and traditions of a community a woman lives in. In Russian culture, the arrival of a new baby in the family is accompanied by its own practices and ceremonies.

 In Russia when a woman becomes pregnant, she tells only the father of a child and the closest members of her family about her pregnancy. Unlike the pregnant woman of Quecha Indians of Guatemala, the Russian mother does not mention her pregnancy to her friends or any other people until the stomach is easily noticed. The reason for this is the fear of a miscarriage during first months of the woman’s pregnancy. On the other hand, some women believe that they protect their unborn child from evil spirits that may harm their baby. Therefore, the mother goes to work as if nothing has happened. Only when she is on her seventh month, the mother will take maternity leave to stay home and take care of herself and her baby. The mother talks to her baby from the first day when she finds out that she is carrying a child under her heart as an Indian woman in Guatemala does. However, she does not tell him how hard his life will be. Rather she tells him that she loves him already and how stronger her love will be when he will be born.

If the family decides to know who they are expecting, they go to a doctor’s office to do ultrasound examination. Both the mother and the father usually attend the event, and this is the first time when they see their child. Around that time the parents consider the name of the child. Although some parents select the name of the little man in advance, some pull up to the last moment, frantically taking a decision only because all the wait times out, and calling a five-month person simply ляля, the ‘baby’ is not serious. When choosing the name for their child, parents consider different values. While someone gives the name to the child depending on how the name sounds, what are the most popular names, the others choose the name in honor of their grandmother, grandfather, or any other respected and beloved family member. Until the baby is born, the name is held in secret so that even the closest family members may not know it. For some parents, the reason of doing so is to protect their unborn child from the evil eyes, while for the others it is a way to avoid a family drama. Other members of the family, for instance grandparents, uncles, and aunts, usually wish to offer their options of the name.

 When the time is right, a mother goes to a hospital where she will give birth to her baby. In contrast to Indian woman for whom giving birth in official medical establishments is an insult to their traditions, the majority of Russian mothers give births in a hospital and only some of them may decide to have a child at home but still under the strict supervision of a doctor and a midwife. Nowadays if a father decides to accompany a mother during a birth of their child, it can be arranged. But for some reasons, a father usually decides not to be present at the labor room. When the baby is born, both the mother and the baby will stay in a medical facility for four to seven days. During this time in a hospital, the mother rests and a nurse teaches her how to feed a child, change his diapers, bathe, and wrap him. As babies in Indian families in Guatemala, Russian babies are breast-fed. The milk of a mother is considered to have all the nutrients that are essential for the child’s health in his first months of life. The child gets a birth certificate. To register a child a family of a newborn has to collect a lot of papers. Therefore, the process of receiving a birth certificate may last up to a few weeks. The birth certificate is the main and the only document before the child reaches the age when a regular passport is issued.

On the day when a mother and a baby are ready to go home, a father and other family members meet them in front of the hospital with flowers and balloons. A midwife holds a child wrapped in a blanket which is tied with pink or blue ribbon representing the sex of the child. Before passing the child to the father, the picture of the parents and a midwife in a middle holding a baby is taken. One will find such pictures in every Russian family. Then a father can hold his child for the first time. He is usually not allowed to visit a newborn and a mother in a ward due to the high sterility rules in the hospital. The parents prepare everything necessary for the baby beforehand. Therefore, when they come home from the hospital, the baby will have everything it needs. The newborn will sleep in his room alone or the crib may be placed next to the parents’ bed. For the first month or two no one is invited to the house because the parents do not want any foreign infection or germ in the baby’s environment. Only the closest relatives such as grandparents may come to the house and help the mother with the baby. If a person chooses to go and see the newborn baby for the first time, he or she usually brings a present for the baby. This ceremony of bringing presents is both similar to one that takes place among Indian families of Guatemala and different in a way of what exactly people bring. In Russian family, people do not bring food, animals or wood to the mother. Usually, they bring toys or clothes for the child. If the baby is a girl, most of her clothes will be pink, and for the boy, it is a blue. Depending on a family’s beliefs, the parents may decide whether to baptize a child or not. And if they decide to do so, they choose godparents for the child and then they go to Church where the procedure takes place. This can be done at any age of a child.

After the baby is born and the mother with the child is still in the hospital, the father invites his friends and members of the family to his home to celebrate the birth of his child. Usually, they drink a lot of alcohol to the health of the child. When the baby is finally at home, the parents do not organize any welcoming party. Only when the child is one year old, his birthday is celebrated with a small party. Mostly family members are invited to the party and sometimes the closest friends of the family will also be there. When people come to the celebration, they bring presents for the child. Almost all the time, they bring a doll for a girl and a car for a boy. They will sit and talk what a good help for the mother her daughter will be or what a great protector of their family her son will be when they grow up.