ABSTRACT
Birth with pains!-Biblical references-Easy and difficult births-Hebrew women-Bosnian-Albanian-Montenegrin-Greek-Turkish, Persian, Kurdin, and Arabian--Opinions of Constantinpole midwives-Concealment of the act of birth Irom men and strangers~Bosnian Graco-Wallavian customs-Greek-The hand of the Holy Virgin-Superstitious methods of easing birth-Serbian and Bosnian-Amulets-Turkish-Earth-EfJective water -Crumbs from the Sultans' table-Syrian-Armenian-Persian-Enticing the child with sweets and play-things-Good deeds among the SpaniardsFolk remedies against weak pains--Old-Arabian methods-The burning of blood-Shaking the one giving birth-M ass ages-Sitting on stones-The position of the patient-Crouching-From the experience of my friend, Dr_ Beck-In the lap of the midwife-The birth stool--Operations-Caesarian operations-What Dr_ Gjorjewitsch told me-A Turkish custom-A horrible IJractice of J~ws from Beyruth-After the birth-The afterbirth-The
In the first Book of Moses III, 16, it is said: " ... I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; ... " Other passages describe this kind of pain. Psalm, 48, 6: "Fear took hold of them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail." Jeremiah VI, 24: " .•. our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken bold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail." Isaiah XIII, 8, says: " ... pa~gs and sorrows shall take hold f)f them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth .... " Jeremiah IV, 31, cries out: "For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child." In Hosea, XIII. 13, the difficulties which hinder the normal course are specified: "The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children." In Isaiah XXXVII, 3, it is said: " ... for the children are come to the hirth, and there is not strength to bring forth." In such case they lose faith in the help of God, they lose faith in Jehovah who comforts them in Isaiah LXVI, 9: "Shall I hring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth?"
