Curiosidades del parto en las primeras civilizaciones

We are going to delve into certain curiosities related to childbirth, with the different visions of ancient civilizations and how some of the old conceptions of childbirth have reached our days.

First writings about childbirth

The first written references to childbirth, apart from what is written in Genesis, are found in the papyrus of Ebers and Kahun (Egypt, 1500 BC). Birth and fertility were entrusted to the goddess Hathor (goddess of love, her name meant "The abode of Horus").

In those documents interesting contributions to the childbirth and everything related to the pregnancy of the woman are collected. Thus, the diagnosis of pregnancy consisted of counting the number of times a woman vomited when placed on a mixture of beer and dates (this rejection of strong smells is studied today as evidence of pregnancy). During the delivery, which took place at home, the women crouched on four ritual bricks, representing Mesjenet (goddess related to motherhood and protector of childbirth) while the midwives helped. The placenta was preserved for use in certain medical remedies. Afterwards, the women separated for fourteen days to purify themselves, since after the birth they were considered impure.

The specialists in Anesthesiology establish that there are certain suggestions in some papyri concerning the convenience that perineal tears should be sutured after delivery. In one of them, says verbatim: "return to unite the vagina."

Childbirth in American Indian cultures

In American Indian cultures, childbirth was celebrated as a cult of fertility. The woman was hanging from a beam from the roof with ropes and squatting in labor in collaboration with midwives and with the active participation of the husband. On a few occasions, hugging her from behind her armpit, and in other cases her participation was even more active, it was a means of transferring the woman's pain to him, through a rope that held the parturient and tied the other end with the testicles of man, pulling the same in each contraction. It seems that this hurts less, the opinion of the husbands is unknown.

Childbirth in classical Greece

In classical Greece, childbirth was the property of the goddesses: Ilitia, daughter of Zeus and Ares, and Artemis, daughter of Zeus and Leto, twin sister of Apollo, who, with extraordinary precocity, helped her mother to deliver his brother. All a feat. These two goddesses were in charge of controlling the contractions and guaranteeing a safe delivery, sometimes representing with a torch in the hand to guide the children on their way out of the birth canal and find the light, whence the term "birth or giving to light. "

A Greek poem thus reflects the participation of these goddesses in childbirth: "When tormented by the pains of childbirth, sore and anguished we invoke sex, for the sure rest of the soul; for only you Ilitía can relieve the pain, which we try to alleviate, but in vain. Artemis, Ilitia, venerable power, you brought relief at the dreadful hour of childbirth. "

The birth according to Hippocrates

Hippocrates, the father of medicine (460-370 BC) came to explain the reason for the delivery of this original form: "The fetus tends to leave the maternal cloister forced by hunger and born by virtue of his strength; but this only happens when you have your head down, resting your feet on the bottom of the womb. From there it follows as a logical consequence that in any other position, labor is impossible and women must be freed from the product of conception by embryotomic instruments. "

Who created obstetrics?

Sorano of Ephesus is considered the creator of obstetrics. He lived in Rome in the second century AD, the most glorious era of the Empire, when his designs were ruled by the Spanish Trajan, made interesting contributions such as the description of the different fetal presentations and the different maneuvers such as the breech version or the use of certain postures to facilitate childbirth, describing in one of his books the obstetric chair, instrument that has been used until the deliveries in bed introduced in the seventeenth century by the gynecologist of the Parisian aristocracy, Mauriceau. Who to please his clients condemned the woman to give birth in bed to our days.

The Romans are the true creators of the body of midwives, predecessors of the current titled midwives. The professional who attended the delivery was called "obstetrix". Term that comes from the verb obstare whose meaning is "to be in front", from which the current word Obstetrics derives, science that is in charge of the study of the pregnant woman and of the childbirth.

The origin of the cesarean section

Another term coined by the Romans was that of "cesarean ". On the other hand, it does not have a peaceful etymological definition. At first it was believed that this intervention was called that because Julio César was born in this way. This was how Pliny the Elder described it: "The first of the Caesars took his name because he was born from the split uterus of his mother". This does not follow the reality, since the mortality from this intervention was 100% and it is known that the mother of Julio César, Aurelia Cotta, died in the year 54 BC taking care of her grandchildren. More logical to think that cesarean comes from caedere, Latin verb meaning cut, make an incision.

In Rome, and its second king after Rómulo, Numa Pompilio (7th century BC) enacted the Lex Regia prohibiting the burial of a pregnant mother without first extracting the fetus. The reason for insisting on Cesarean birth by Julius Caesar is in seeking an immaculate birth, fleeing from what St. Augustine affirmed; "We are born between excrement and urine", and what the apologists of the victim of the Idus of March tried to do was try to equate to the same birth of other myths such as Scipio Africanus, Aesclepius, Dionysus, Adonis, Bacchus, Brahma or Buddha. In short, what he was trying to do was confirm his divine birth.