ABSTRACT
Detailed information on most aspects of this topic is available for Unyamwezi proper only, and the following account refers especially to that area.m There, if a woman delays to become pregnant she seeks ritual help from her mother's people, who should present her with a sheep, and she may go with her husband to a diviner who may give her medicines to help her to conceive. 344 Once a woman has become pregnant she must observe a variety of food and other taboos.m Ankermann reports such prohibitions for Ukimbu also.3' 6 She should refrain from sexual intercourse when her pregnancy has become advanced, though she may continue with her ordinary work until more or less the last moment. A woman will normally try to have her first child at her parents' home, but subsequent children are usually delivered at her husband's home. The husband should not be present at the birth which is assisted by senior female kinsfolk and/ or neighbours of the mother.347 The mother sits upon the ground for the actual delivery of the child. Difficult deliveries are commonly believed to be due to adultery on the part of the mother. 348
The umbilical cord is cut with a piece of millet stalk.M9 Once the cord has fallen, the child can be brought out of the hut for the first time.350 The cord itself may be buried or kept in a special calabash, but according to some informants it is simply thrown away. The afterbirth is buried.351 When the child is brought out of the hut, usually about five days after its birth, special ceremonies are performed which symbolically represent its future role as a male or female member of the society.153 It is also given a name during these first few days.
