Pregnancy can be a period of unbearable discomfort. For nine months you feel nauseous, suffer from muscle pain, and also have unpredictable mood swings. On top of that, labor pains are said to be some of the worst pains to endure. Now, imagine how terrible would all of that feel if we didn’t have modern technology, anesthetics, and pain killers. Giving birth in ancient times was surely as marvelous as it was traumatizing.
In Mexico, during the Pre-Hispanic era, the pregnancy and labor process was full of mystical and transcendental elements. Aztec people, or Nahuas, used to understand the child-bearing ritual through duality, an essential element of their worldview. Ometeotl, God of duality, was a divine being that personified the union of opposites: light and darkness, life and death, male and female. The cosmos works by the union of these opposing elements.
The conception of a new life entailed the union of dual principles. The role of the father is as important as the role of the mother: one is the earth, another one is the seed. Without both elements, sustaining life wouldn’t be possible.
The final cause comes from a divine source. The parents of the newborn saw themselves as channels of a divinity that had chosen them to cradle new life. This whole process was a social and spiritual event. This is the mystic birth ritual of Mexican Pre-hispanic culture:
Pregnancy
Pregnancy was not a private subject, it involved the whole family. That’s why, when a woman learned she was pregnant, the whole family would celebrate with a great feast. This was the opportunity for the family to express their kind wishes to their new member. The reaffirmation of blood ties was the core of this celebration.
Pregnancy was regarded as a gift from the gods. The woman was viewed as the receptacle where this gift could germinate like a seed.
Preparations for labor
The Nahua people would never leave these women alone. They had the support and care of their family network. Another important element in this process was the midwife. When the woman was only a few months away from labor, the family gathered again and the pregnant woman was entrusted to a midwife.
Not only would she help the woman give birth, but also give her recommendations for the child’s nutrition and education.
Pregnant women would receive lots of “recommendations.” Many of them would sound ridiculous today. For example, there was a strong advice against letting her chew gum to avoid having her child would die with a stiffened palate. Also, the mother was supposed to eat properly and satisfy all her cravings, except that of eating dirt (tizatl). She was also told not cry, look at bright colors, or push herself too hard, or else, she might put her life in danger.
Moreover, she wouldn’t take a bath if it was too hot or too cold. She wasn’t allowed to sit with her belly or her back too close to the fireplace, or expose herself to the sunlight too much. If she did any of these things the baby could be roasted.
The Moment Of Labor
This moment was seen as a radical transition. The woman became a “warrior.” From that moment on she took a new social status. However, the chance of death during labor was high. If something went wrong, the midwife could choose whether to sacrifice the baby in order to save the woman –as long as she had the parent’s permission–or prepare the woman to come to terms with death.
Finally, the name of the baby was determined by the priests, according to the date and hour of birth, as well as the Aztec calendar.
According to UNAM researcher Berenice Alcántara Rojas, the Nahua people strongly believed that the existence of all life in the world was possible thanks to the constant union of opposite principles: female and male, terrestrial and celestial, the top and the bottom, wet and warm, and light and dark. The male and female principle complemented everything in existence. This notion kept the world in complete harmony, despite its apparent contradictions. There was nothing more fulfilling than the birth of a new life. It brought family joy and union, and acknowledged women and everything feminine as a source of all life.
If you would like to learn more about the Pre-Hispanic culture, don’t forget to check out:
The Aztec Women Who Became Goddesses After Dying During Childbirth
The Toothed Vagina: A Myth That Inspired Anti-Rape Stories
Sources:
Alcántara Rojas, Berenice, “Miquizpan. El momento del parto, un momento de muerte. Prácticas alrededor del embarazo y parto entre nahuas y mayas del Posclásicas” (“Miquizpan. The Moment of Childbirth, a Moment of Death. Pregnancy and Childbirth in Postclassic Nahuas and Mayans”), Revista de Estudios Mesoamericanos, UNAM, Vol. II, Julio-Diciembre 2000.
De la Torre, Ernesto, “El Nacimiento en el Mundo Prehispánico” (“Birth in the Prehispanic World”), Revista Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 34, UNAM, 2003.
Más de MX
Translated by Andrea Valle Gracia
