ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on childbirth, analyses the whole Monument to understand the context of the childbirth prayers. The childbirth group of prayers contains only two headings, "Praiers to be said of women with child, and in childbed, and after their delivery," and "Thanksgivings for women after deliverance of child," but headings in the Monument are sparse and not always helpful. The prayers in the first group praise God for the miracle of conception, pray for God's aid in carrying and delivering the child, and affirm a trust in God's providence. Of the thirty-nine prayers, only two are for the baby and four are prayers of thanksgiving; the rest focus on the act of childbirth itself—the agonies, the fears, and the dangers, including death, that women might expect to suffer. This contrasts strongly with the Book of Common Prayer which deals only with the churching or purification of women after childbirth.
